NewzIntel.com

Category: Asia Pacific

  • MIL-OSI Economics: ADB to Support Green and Low-Carbon Urban Development in Chongqing, PRC

    Source: Asia Development Bank

    MANILA, PHILIPPINES (16 October 2024) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200 million equivalent loan to help build and implement green, low-carbon, climate-resilient, and cross-sector urban development measures in Chongqing Gaoxin District in Chongqing Municipality, the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

    “Chongqing has ambitious climate change targets, as well as a strong commitment to evolving Chongqing Gaoxin District into a low-carbon, nature-based, and climate-resilient city. But a holistic and integrated approach is critical to long-term success,” said ADB Country Director for the PRC Safdar Parvez. “This results-based lending program will foster collaboration among stakeholders and benefit almost a million residents.”

    Chongqing experiences severe climate events, such as high temperatures, mountain fires, heavy rain, and droughts. The city’s rapid urban and industrial development has also degraded environmental quality, with Chongqing Gaoxin District facing frequent flooding, subpar infrastructure, and poor river water quality.

    The Chongqing Gaoxin District Green and Low-Carbon Urban Development Program will support green and low-carbon infrastructure and services, including improved domestic wastewater management, green buildings, and renewable-energy-powered district heating and cooling supply. It will also support the development of a green eco-district—which applies sustainable urban practices like efficient resource usage and lowered carbon emissions into design and operation—and application of nature-based solutions, including enhanced flood mitigation capacity and urban green spaces.

    The program will also strengthen institutional capacity and human capital to build and implement green and low-carbon initiatives, as well as train students, especially females, for roles toward climate-resilient urban development.

    ADB’s climate finance for the program is $124 million, with an estimated $72.75 million in mitigation costs and $51.25 million in adaptation costs. The total program cost is $841.9 million equivalent. It is expected to be completed in 2030.

    ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 69 members—49 from the region.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Why China now wants to put some limits on its ‘no limits’ friendship with Russia

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guangyi Pan, Teaching fellow, international politics, UNSW Sydney

    Just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China announced to much fanfare a “no-limits friendship” with Russia, suggesting a future of close collaboration in trade, energy and, perhaps most importantly, security.

    Now, more than two years into the war, the meaning and interpretation of this “no-limits” commitment has evolved.

    There has been much debate in Chinese society in recent months about Beijing’s alignment with Moscow. While some have advocated for a more formal alliance with Russia, others have taken a more cautious stance.

    In sharp contrast to 2022, China’s growing wariness is increasingly being discussed in the open, even among those who were previously censored. In early 2022, for instance, a joint letter by six Chinese emeritus historians opposing Russia’s invasion was censored by the government. The scholars were also warned.

    Now, however, it appears the government is seeking to balance its relationships with both Russia and the West. Beijing may not want to be seen as a “decisive enabler” of the war.

    For example, the once-prominent “no-limits” friendship language quietly vanished from a Sino-Russian joint statement in May.

    And Beijing’s response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit that month was notably subdued. Putin ingratiated himself with Xi, saying they were “as close as brothers”. Xi’s response was more perfunctory – he called Putin a “good friend and a good neighbour”.

    Scholars are also articulating their concerns about China’s political and economic investments in Russia, both publicly and privately.

    Shen Dingli, a leading scholar of Chinese security strategy at Fudan University in Shanghai, said China doesn’t want to be seen as collaborating with Russia against Ukraine or any other country.

    He also quoted Fu Cong, China’s former ambassador to the European Union, who said last year the “no-limits” [friendship] is “nothing but rhetoric”.

    And in August, after Putin referred to China as an “ally” during a visit to far-eastern Russia, Chinese scholars promptly sought to clarify this statement to prevent any misunderstanding China wants a formal alliance with Russia.

    These statements carry weight. In many respects, leading Chinese scholars at the government-affiliated universities act as propagandists to convey and justify the government’s stance on issues. As a result, subtle shifts in their commentary provide insights into the strategic mindset in Beijing.

    Why China is rethinking its ‘no-limits’ friendship?

    There are three elements driving this re-evaluation of the Russia-China alignment.

    First, there is growing scepticism of Russia’s state capacities. The mutiny by the Wagner Group last year and Ukraine’s recent incursion into Russia’s Kursk region have prompted critical reassessments in Beijing of Russia’s political stability and military preparedness, as well as the growing anti-war sentiment in Russia.

    As Feng Yujun, director of Fudan University’s Russia and Central Asia Study Centre, argued, the Wagner rebellion was a reflection of Russia’s internal conflicts and domestic security challenges. He noted every time Russia has faced both internal and external crises in history, its regimes have become less stable.

    More recently, Feng has been even bolder, predicting Russian defeat in Ukraine. He argued China should keep its distance from Moscow and resume a policy of “non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-partisanship”.

    Second, China’s sluggish economy and its underwhelming trade with Russia have further exposed how dependent both countries are on the West.

    While Russia-China trade reached a record US$240 billion (A$360 billion) in 2023, it has slowed so far this year, as Chinese financial institutions have sought to limit connections with Russia.

    The relationship still heavily favours Beijing. Russia accounts for only 4% of China’s trade, while China accounts for nearly 22% of Russia’s trade.

    Many Chinese experts are now warning against an over-dependence on Russia, instead calling for more cooperation with neighbouring countries. This echoes a recent concern Russia has been using its natural resources as a bargaining chip to extract greater benefits from China.

    Russia’s value as a military ally

    Finally, there are rising Chinese concerns its international outlook does not align with Russia’s.

    Zhao Long, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of International Relations, says there is an important difference in how they view the world:

    Russia wants to destroy the current international system to build a new one. China wants to transform the current system by taking a more prominent place in it.

    Shi Yinhong, a strategist at Renmin University in Beijing, has highlighted an unbridgeable gap preventing a stronger China-Russia alliance. He says there’s a deep mutual mistrust on regional security. Russia has never promised support for China in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, just as China has avoided involvement in the war in Ukraine.

    As Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches a stalemate, its value as a military ally is increasingly being questioned in China.

    Recently, Feng Yujun warned China risks being led by the nose by Russia, despite being the stronger economic partner. He says every time China has attempted an alliance with Russia in history, it has had negative consequences for China.

    Consequently, it is crucial for China to maintain its long-term partnership with Russia without undermining its constructive relationship with the West.

    Russia has arguably benefited from the current competition between the US and China, as it has sought to exploit the rivalry for its own benefit. But this has also led to uncertainty in the China-Russia relationship.

    As another analyst, Ji Zhiye, argues, relying too heavily on Russia will leave China isolated and vulnerable. And this is not a position China wants to be in.

    Guangyi Pan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why China now wants to put some limits on its ‘no limits’ friendship with Russia – https://theconversation.com/why-china-now-wants-to-put-some-limits-on-its-no-limits-friendship-with-russia-238436

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Security: NAMRU INDO PACIFIC Grows Partnership in Malaysia

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  –  

    Capt. Andrew Letizia, science director of Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU) INDO PACIFIC, has described the command’s collaborations with partner nations as the lifeblood of Navy Medicine’s OCONUS research and development.

    “The best part of my job is sitting down with excellent researchers from a host nation, putting our goals and concepts on paper, designing a project, and then watching the project help meet the needs of the partners as it comes to life,” Letizia explained. “Since I first started playing with Legos many years ago, I have enjoyed building things. Watching NAMRU INDO PACIFIC build new partnerships and strengthen the previous ones brings back that same joy I felt as a kid, making all of the pieces fit together correctly to make a great creation.”

    NAMRU INDO PACIFIC partners with 10 different countries within the area of responsibility (AOR). This network of collaborators continues to grow as the scope of Navy Medicine research expands to meet the ever-evolving needs of U.S. service members. Malaysia, home to many of the U.S. Navy’s partners, is the latest of these countries to see an expansion in collaboration.

    KUALA LUMPUR
    Like many Sailors, Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Weir wakes up early to make her way to the office. Unlike other Sailors, Weir’s walk to work takes her through the bustling metropolis of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. From her office at the U.S. Embassy, she oversees research projects in Malaysia for NAMRU INDO PACIFIC, one of Navy Medicine’s three OCONUS research commands.

    Weir, a microbiologist, is the first person to fill this brand-new billet. NAMRU INDO PACIFIC has been building partnerships within Malaysia for almost 15 years, and Weir is the first active-duty U.S. Sailor stationed in-country.

    “The best part of my job is working with our Malaysian partners,” Weir said, “to foster and strengthen existing collaborative research endeavors, as well as to expand and create new efforts to achieve both their and our research needs and objectives. I also enjoy sharing space and working with my Office of Defense Cooperation and other U.S. Embassy colleagues to support various medical lines of effort and other global health security initiatives.”

    In 2007 NAMRU INDO PACIFIC, then known as NAMRU-2, initiated a partnership with the University of Malaysia. In the years since, the partnership has grown into a much bigger relationship, spanning multiple projects and interoperability.

    “We have been working with [NAMRU INDO PACIFIC] for the past 16 years,” explained Dr. Sazaly Abu Bakar, professor and executive director of the Tropical Infectious Diseases Research & Education Centre (TIDREC) at the University of Malaysia, “and this relationship has really grown over the years. We are now at a transition point that is going to take this relationship to the next level.”

    Part of that next level involves Weir as an active-duty researcher and in-country liaison.

    “We used to have just a few projects,” added Abu Bakar. “Now we have more activities, focused on biomedical research. This shows how the relationship between the two has grown over the years.”

    NAMRU INDO PACIFIC also partners with the National Defense University of Malaysia. Brig. Gen. Mohd Arshil Moideen, dean of the university’s medical facility and defense health division, spoke highly of the partnership.

    “The collaboration includes capacity building in our research, specifically in diagnostic laboratory capabilities,” Moideen explained. “We are currently running a few major research collaborations with tropical disease, as well as entomology studies. Lt. Cmdr. Weir is here specifically for this research cooperation, and this has never happened before. This means that Malaysia is now a significant partner in term of research collaboration.”

    “A permanent NAMRU presence within Malaysia will not only enhance our ability to achieve our mission, but also demonstrates to our Malaysian partners our commitment to continue to work together to enhance health security in the region for years to come,” said Weir. “In my experience thus far, the biggest challenges have been overcoming various administrative challenges often outside of our control that impede the progress of our collaborative research goals and objectives.”

    BORNEO
    NAMRU INDO PACIFIC is also partnering on research in collaboration with The University of Malaysia Sabah, located in the Malaysian state Sabah, which lies on the island of Borneo.

    Borneo is an island east of Kuala Lumpur, and the third largest in the world. It is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, with native flora and fauna that includes the world’s biggest flower and world’s smallest elephant. Borneo is also one of the few places where orangutans live in the wild.

    Borneo is also home to East Malaysia, comprised of 2 states and 1 federal territory, the country of Brunei and 5 provinces of Indonesia. The university has over 100 lecturers and more than 500 students, as well as a medical and nursing school.

    “We have a lot of diseases in Sabah,” explained Dr. Yosof Ibrahim, dean of UMS. “The number of research that has been done is limited, because of manpower and expertise. There are a lot more diseases that need to be discovered, identified and to be explored. Sabah has many different ethnicities. We have 32 different ethnicities. This is a challenge. Topography is a challenge. Dialect is a challenge. The way we [in Sabah] live and look at things are very different.

    “This collaboration is beneficial,” Ibrahim added, “not only to NAMRU, but to us. In a way, it opens an avenue for us to expand our research and design what our protective measures should be for rural people. 70 percent of our people are in a rural area. There is a difficulty in access to medical facilities.”

    “Malaysia is rich in culture,” said Weir, “with Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous communities. This diversity fosters a vibrant social scene and a diverse and unique culinary experience! Malaysia is also home to diverse and beautiful landscapes perfect for outdoor activities like hiking, diving, and exploring national parks. I personally love the year-round warm tropical environment. Anyone who is fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit or work in Malaysia should not pass it up.”

    NAMRU INDO PACIFIC plays an important role in the heath of those in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) AOR. One of the most culturally, socially, economically and geopolitically diverse regions, the Asia-Pacific region is home to 38 nations and 60% of the world’s population. More than one-third of these nations are smaller, island nations, where many tropical diseases are prevalent.

    NAMRU INDO PACIFIC collaborates with partners in Singapore, Mongolia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the U.S. to conduct research efforts throughout the USINDOPACOM area.

    The command’s “hub and spoke” model of operations from its headquarters in Singapore, its wide array partners in the INDOPACOM AOR and the over 375,000 U.S service members stationed in the Pacific allow the NAMRU INDO PACIFIC scientific portfolio to shift, as needed, to align with host nation and sponsor priorities while maintaining focus and efforts on U.S. health security objectives.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Karakia/Prayers – 001420

    Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

    WEDNESDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2024

    The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.

    KARAKIA/PRAYERS

    TEANAU TUIONO (Assistant Speaker): E te Atua kaha rawa, ka tuku whakamoemiti atu mātou, mō ngā karakia kua waihotia mai ki runga i a mātou. Ka waiho i ō mātou pānga whaiaro katoa ki te taha. Ka mihi mātou ki te Kīngi, me te inoi atu mō te ārahitanga i roto i ō mātou whakaaroarohanga, kia mōhio ai, kia whakaiti ai tā mātou whakahaere i ngā take o te Whare nei, mō te oranga, te maungārongo, me te aroha o Aotearoa. Āmene.

    [Almighty God, we give thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed on us. Laying aside all personal interests, we acknowledge the King and pray for guidance in our deliberations that we may conduct the affairs of this House with wisdom and humility, for the welfare, peace, and compassion of New Zealand. Amen.]

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Petitions, Papers, Select Committee Reports, and Introduction of Bills – 001419

    Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

    PETITIONS, PAPERS, SELECT COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

    SPEAKER: No petitions have been delivered to the Clerk, but Ministers have delivered 18 papers.

    CLERK:

    • 2023-24 annual reports of ACC, Crown Irrigation Investments, Crown Law, Inland Revenue, Kāinga Ora, LINZ, MBIE, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, NZQA, the Remuneration Authority, Stats NZ
    • Reports on the 2023-24 non-departmental appropriations for Vote Education, Vote Housing and Urban Development, and the Emergency Management and Recovery portfolio
    • Government response to the Climate Change Commission’s Monitoring report: Emissions reduction (July 2024); the ACC 2023-24 climate report and 2024-25 service agreement.

    SPEAKER: Those papers are published under the authority of the House. No select committee papers have been presented. No bills have been introduced.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Concludes Visit to Cambodia for Defense Policy Dialogue

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    Department of Defense spokesperson John Supple provided the following readout:

    Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for South and Southeast Asia Laura Updegrove concluded her visit to Cambodia today for the first U.S.-Cambodia Defense Policy Dialogue since 2019 and for meetings with Cambodian defense and foreign policy officials. DASD Updegrove’s trip follows Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Cambodia on June 4, 2024.

    DASD Updegrove co-chaired the U.S.-Cambodia Defense Policy Dialogue, marking the third time the Dialogue has been held since its inception in 2011. The two sides discussed opportunities to strengthen the U.S.-Cambodia bilateral defense relationship, including through the resumption of military training exchanges on disaster assistance, United Nations Peacekeeping and de-mining and unexploded ordnance clearance, as well as Cambodia’s participation in U.S. professional military education (PME). The two sides also exchanged views on the regional security environment and reaffirmed their commitment to continued dialogue.

    On the margins of the dialogue, DASD Updegrove met with Minister of National Defence Tea Seiha and Prime Minister Hun Manet’s Foreign Policy Advisor Eat Sophea to discuss advancing bilateral defense cooperation in support of regional peace and security.

    During her visit DASD Updegrove also met with Cambodian graduates of U.S. PME programs, where she highlighted the longstanding defense training ties between the United States and Cambodia.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI China: Frankfurt Book Fair 2024 kicks off

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    The Frankfurt Book Fair officially opened on Tuesday, highlighting a variety of genres and topics, including the “New Adult” category – romantic novels targeting young adults – alongside children’s and young adult literature, comics, streaming services, and educational and academic publishing.

    One of the most anticipated discussions at the fair is the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the publishing industry.

    At a press conference, Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association, acknowledged that while AI offers many opportunities for publishers, bookstores, and the logistics sector, it has yet to produce the kind of surprising, thought-provoking, or emotionally resonant works that come from human creativity.

    She also expressed concern about the ethical implications of AI, warning that its capabilities rely on “the largest-scale data theft in history.” She pointed out that massive amounts of text and images, many protected by copyright, have been used to train AI systems without proper consent or compensation for the original creators.

    Chinese publishers are making a significant impact at this year’s fair, showcasing more than 3,500 books, including 1,500 in foreign languages. In addition to new book releases, Chinese publishers are holding numerous premieres and signing ceremonies for copyright agreements, with up to 1,000 books available for copyright trade. The fair will also feature a promotional event for the 2025 Beijing International Book Fair and a session on copyright trade between China and Europe.

    Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, noted the growing presence of Chinese publishers at the event, saying that they have evolved from being primarily copyright importers to becoming major copyright sellers. Boos also announced the introduction of an “Asian Stage” at the fair for the first time, which will foster dialogue between authors from China, other Asian countries, and Germany. Topics such as continuing education and training will be discussed to promote mutual learning between Chinese and German authors.

    This year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, which runs for five days, will feature thousands of exhibitors from around 100 countries.

    First held in 1949, the fair has since grown into the largest book fair in the world. Italy is the guest of honor for this year’s event.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Paintings explore odyssey of vision

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    Gazing at the paintings of Chang Shuhong (1904-94), founding director of the Dunhuang Academy, people can still feel the fundamental draw of the Mogao Caves that brought him back from France in the 1930s, leaving behind a prospect of an emerging classical oil painter.

    The following five decades saw him immerse in the charm of the treasure trove of Buddhist murals and painted sculptures as a wholehearted protector of the grottoes in the Gobi Desert of Northwest China.

    His later works, therefore, were largely influenced by murals in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, Gansu province — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — and a more down-to-earth, local artistic expression of China popular at that time, says Zhang Yiqing, research librarian at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou, Chang’s hometown.

    In commemoration of the 120th anniversary of Chang’s birth, some of his oil paintings, watercolors and sketches are on show at the museum through to Sunday.

    The exhibits also include Chang’s copies of the murals in the Mogao Caves, as well as zhongcai (heavy-color) paintings, an important genre of Chinese painting with fine, precise delimitation and the layering of pigmented hues.

    Through Chang’s own depiction, the exhibition gives a display of early conservation efforts of the Dunhuang Academy, while tracing Chang’s artistic exploration and achievements before and after he went back from France.

    Chang was born in Hangzhou, a warm, wet and picturesque city along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In his early 20s, he went to France to study oil painting and fabric pattern design.

    His graduation work at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Portrait of Madame G, ranked top among his peer graduates. He later entered the prestigious Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris with a scholarship funded by the city of Lyon.

    In France, Chang was active in salons, official art exhibitions sponsored by the French government. Having received several awards, some of his works were included among the collections of French cultural and artistic institutions, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

    An encounter on the bank of the Seine changed his life.

    From a bookseller Chang got to read French explorer and Sinologist Paul Pelliot’s photo catalog, the six-volume Les Grottes de Touen-Houang (The Grottoes of Dunhuang). He then visited the Guimet Museum, or the National Museum of Asian Arts, to see the relics of Dunhuang taken by Pelliot.

    Chang marveled at the beauty and profoundness of the caves, first built more than 1,600 years ago, while mourning the loss of or damage to the cultural relics.

    He then made up his mind to go back to his home country and devote his life to the preservation of the grottoes and the promotion of Dunhuang studies.

    Chang came back in 1936. Amid the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), he managed to arrive in Dunhuang after a month’s arduous journey in 1943 and prepared for the establishment of what is known today as the Dunhuang Academy.

    This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the academy, which currently oversees the Mogao Caves and several other relics sites in Gansu.

    In the late 1990s, Chang’s second wife Li Chengxian (1924-2003) and their children donated more than 200 paintings of Chang to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, a small part of which are displayed at the museum’s permanent Chang Shuhong Gallery.

    Zhang, who is also curator of the ongoing temporary exhibition, says its more than 80 paintings serve as a larger presentation of Chang’s works housed at the museum, alongside the collection of Shanghai-based Long Museum and the private collection of Chang Jiahuang, Chang Shuhong’s second son.

    Sincere creativity

    With his subtle brush, Chang Shuhong recorded the Mogao Caves and the Dunhuang city in different seasons: the trees and blossoms in spring; the frozen Daquan River in front of the caves during winter, children playing on ice, a white stupa in the distance; and birds in snow against the backdrop of the landmark timber-structured nine-floor building that houses the tallest statue of Maitreya Buddha, or the Buddha of the Future, at the Mogao Caves.

    Upon his arrival, Chang Shuhong and colleagues pioneered a systematic conservation of the relics, planting trees and building protective walls, reinforcing the cliffs, constructing pathways, cleaning up the caves buried in sand, investigating and numbering them. Many of his paintings feature these efforts carried out at the windy and sandy Gobi Desert.

    He also depicted several times the bustling temple fair in front of the caves, falling annually around the eighth day of the fourth month on the Chinese lunar calendar, in celebration of the birthday of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha).

    During the nine years in France, Chang Shuhong focused mainly on classical realistic oil painting, constantly exploring what could possibly become a “Chinese style of oil painting” and integrating it with his generation of artists’ reflection of life and concern about society.

    Hence, the art of Dunhuang particularly resonated with Chang Shuhong, as it was, in his own words, “created by ordinary people and for the ordinary people”. He saw in it exuberant, sincere creativity that he realized would have a significant impact on the creation of art in the coming decades, Zhang says.

    Two paintings of fresh produce Chang Shuhong created in different periods exemplify his transformation in artistic style. One was painted in 1933 in Paris, displayed at the Chang Shuhong Gallery, and the other in 1976, on show at the temporary exhibition.

    The earlier painting, conforming to the classical style, is overall of a gray tone with low saturation, whereas in the latter one, the painter used bold and clear lines, large red and green blocks to create striking contrast, though like before, the fish glisten in subtle light.

    Zhang adds that such transformation reflects the influence of the art of Dunhuang.

    Highlights of the exhibition also include one of Chang Shuhong’s facsimiles of a mural from Cave 254, dating back to the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), depicting a well-known piece of the Jataka tales, narratives of former incarnations of the Buddha. In his lifetime, Chang Shuhong copied this mural many times.

    He once wrote, the creators of this mural, featuring Prince Sattva sacrificing himself to feed a hungry tigress, so cleverly and skillfully combined different scenes of different times in the space of a single picture — his trip to the jungles, his offering of his own blood and flesh to the tigress, as well as his two brothers’ discovery of his remains, their grief, and how they bury their sibling and build a stupa for him.

    A solemn and heavy atmosphere is strengthened with the lines and colors, the contours and content, as well as the deep brown hue, he added.

    Chang Shuhong wrote in 1948 that conservation of the caves required detailed, accurate and systematic facsimile of the murals with a faithful attitude, which is a matter of patience and sacrifice of one’s own style and personality. His devotion to protecting the Mogao Caves largely cut down the time and effort paid to his own painting.

    In 1951, staff members of the academy co-authored an article introducing their facsimile project, which said that over the past four decades, many of the murals presented in Pelliot’s photo catalog had been destroyed or faded. With limited scientific knowledge and facilities, facsimile had become their priority and urgency.

    According to Chang Jiahuang, since the 1950s, his father had been frequently inviting art majors from across the country to copy the murals and sculptures of the Mogao Caves, while learning the traditional arts of Dunhuang.

    In 1979, he also replicated the mural featuring Prince Sattva of Cave 254, when he and a dozen classmates at the Lanzhou-based Academy of Fine Art and Design of Northwest Normal University joined this program under the strict supervision of his father, who, nevertheless, would sometimes visit them without notice late at night in the caves where they were working, bringing pears he himself grew.

    Chang Jiahuang says: “It was only after a long time that I learned from my father’s memoir why he had such an attachment to this mural and why he wanted me to copy it.

    “During his most difficult times, this painting inspired him, generating courage for him to persevere. In those three months, I deeply felt the dedication of ancient painters of Dunhuang and my own parents.”

    This year also marks the 100th anniversary of his mother’s birth, who joined in the research and conservation of the Mogao Caves in 1947. In April, the son donated their family’s 1,500 boxes of belongings to Zhejiang University, his father’s alma mater, for research and digitalization.

    Embracing technology

    As early as in the 1980s, Chang Shuhong had foreseen the potential of digitalization in cultural relics conservation.

    Pan Yunhe, academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and former principal of Zhejiang University, who joined the initial digitalization exploration of the Mogao Caves, recalls his first meeting with Chang Shuhong in 1982.

    At that time, Chang Shuhong was among the jury of Pan’s first academic program, which pioneered in generating patterns with artificial intelligence. Chang Shuhong expressed interest in preserving the murals of Dunhuang with a digital approach, visiting Pan’s laboratory and discussing the feasibility.

    “He was open-minded and very sensitive to new things. Ahead of his time, he could always absorb new things into his own creation,” Pan says, adding that Chang Shuhong was very kind and gentle to young people like him, who was at that time in his 30s.

    In 1998, the Dunhuang Academy and Zhejiang University launched an academic program led by Pan and sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China to explore preservation, research and utilization of the Mogao Caves on a digital basis.

    Pan says, the launch of the program resulted from years of endeavor with the Chang family — the parents, firstborn daughter Chang Shana, who was director of what is now Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, and Chang Jiahuang — as well as Fan Jinshi, who took charge as director of the Dunhuang Academy that year.

    “Chang Shuhong was well-established in oil painting. It’s a pity he painted so little in the latter part of his life,” Pan said while visiting the exhibition at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum on Sept 29.

    That day, Chang Jiahuang said at the exhibition’s opening ceremony that as his parents’ student, secretary and assistant, he witnessed their twists and turns, their creation and research, and experienced their art and spirits, following which he grew to become introspective, modest and rigorous.

    According to him, the ongoing exhibition is the largest display of Chang Shuhong’s paintings since 1990 and a good presentation of the master’s spirits conveyed through his works.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI China: Large high-grade iron ore deposit found in east China

    Source: China State Council Information Office

    A high-grade iron ore deposit has been discovered in east China’s Shandong Province, with estimated reserves at 104 million tonnes.

    The Department of Natural Resources of Shandong Province has identified 16 high-grade iron ore bodies in the Qihe-Yucheng region.

    High-grade iron ore typically has a total iron content of over 45 percent — making it a strategic mineral resource in short supply in China.

    Hu Zhiyong, an official with the department, said the newly confirmed high-grade iron ore deposit is one of few in China, and is notable for its large distribution, considerable ore body thickness, high ore quality, and promising exploration potential.

    He emphasized the global imbalance in iron ore supply and demand, noting that major reserves are concentrated in countries such as the United States, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China. Despite having iron ore reserves, China faces a shortage of high-grade iron ore.

    The Qihe-Yucheng area, now poised to become a major high-grade iron ore base, is expected to alleviate some of the resource challenges facing China and improve the nation’s security in terms of iron ore supply, he added.

    As of 2022, a total of 173 kinds of minerals had been found in China, according to a report released by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: U.S. Marines Complete Typhoon Krathon Humanitarian Assistance Efforts

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    MANILA, Philippines  –  

    U.S. Marines across multiple forward-deployed commands concluded six days of foreign disaster relief efforts in the Philippines Oct. 10, 2024, supporting the U.S. Agency for International Development’s humanitarian response to Typhoon Krathon (locally known as Julian) at the request of the Philippine government.

    Marines and Sailors from Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia (MRF-SEA); 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW); III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF); and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15th MEU) embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) delivered nearly 96,000 pounds of foreign disaster relief supplies to Batan Island, a remote island in the Batanes Province and one of the locations most impacted by Krathon.

    Typhoon Krathon originated 155 miles southwest of Okinawa before moving northwest, reaching peak intensity Oct. 1, with sustained winds of 195 kph (120 mph). Krathon heavily battered the northern islands of the Philippines, leading to evacuations, infrastructure damage, and food supply insecurity in affected communities.

    At the request of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin directed U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to support USAID’s relief efforts due to the unique capabilities and high state of readiness of forward-deployed U.S. Marine Corps forces.

    MRF-SEA first arrived in the Philippines in late September to participate in upcoming training exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Operating out of Fort Bonifacio, Philippines, MRF-SEA immediately began coordination with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the AFP, and other U.S. Marine Corps units to plan support for the relief effort. Two teams of Marines and Sailors from MRF-SEA integrated with USAID and AFP personnel in Manila and Laoag to plan and prepare for the arrival of KC-130J Super Hercules aircraft from 1st MAW in Okinawa, Japan, and personnel from 3rd Marine Logistics Group.

    “Before Marine Corps aircraft ever touched down in the Philippines, Marines and Sailors with MRF-SEA were integrated with our partners in the U.S. and Philippine governments, on site at Villamor Air Base and Laoag International Airport, with the manpower and heavy equipment needed to package and move aid material,” said Col. Stuart Glenn, commanding officer, MRF-SEA. “Forward-deployed Marine Corps forces allow us to quickly respond to humanitarian missions because we’re already in the region. I am extremely proud that our team was able to set the necessary conditions to quickly provide relief to the Philippine people.”

    After arriving on Oct. 5, the cargo planes were loaded with supplies at Villamor Air Base and flown to Laoag International Airport in northern Luzon for staging and preparation to move the supplies to their final destination on Batan Island. The KC-130 crews conducted 26.2 hours of flight operations, successfully transported all aid materials to Laoag.

    As U.S. and Philippine personnel worked to move supplies north, the 15th MEU arrived aboard USS Boxer and began flight operations to support relief efforts on Oct. 8. MV-22B Ospreys, assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 165 (Reinforced), landed in Laoag, and combined teams from the 15th MEU, MRF-SEA, and Philippine Marines spent the next three days loading Ospreys, the Marine Corps’ medium-lift tiltrotor V/STOL platform, with disaster relief supplies for the final leg of the movement to the Basco Airport on Batan Island. Pilots and aircrews from VMM-165 (Rein.) conducted more than 55 flights and successfully delivered the final disaster relief material on Thursday, Oct. 10.

    “The primary focus of our mission is helping the people of the Philippines recover as quickly and safely as possible,” said Col. Sean Dynan, commanding officer, 15th MEU. “Humanitarian assistance in an expeditionary environment is what we train to do, and it is one of the reasons we are forward-deployed as an amphibious force.”

    The forward presence and ready posture of U.S. Marine forces in the Indo-Pacific region was pivotal to the rapid and effective response to Typhoon Krathon, demonstrating the U.S.’s commitment to its allies and partners during times of need.

    POINT OF CONTACT:
    Capt. Mark McDonough
    Communication Strategy & Operations Director
    Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia
    +1 (760) 799-4590
    mark.mcdonough@usmc.mil

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Boxer Celebrates Navy’s 249th Birthday

    Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND

    PHILIPPINE SEA  –  

    Sailors assigned to the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and embarked Marines, assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), held a ceremony on the mess decks to celebrate the Navy’s 249th birthday, Oct. 13, 2024.

    The theme of this year’s celebration is warfighting, strength and readiness, highlighting the Navy’s ability to operate anywhere, at any time, to promote security, deter aggression, and defend shared ideals.

    For the last 249 years, the United States Navy has been there to answer the call. From the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the skies around the world, we continue to operate in support of our Allies and Partners, defending our protected interests, bringing lifesaving supplies to those in need, and countless other missions.

    During Boxer’s celebration ceremony, Capt. Brian Holmes, commanding officer, recalled the story of Lt. Cmdr. John D. Bulkeley, a Medal of Honor recipient who showed extraordinary heroism during World War II as the commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three in the same waters that Boxer is currently operating in today.

    Under Bulkeley’s command, the PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three severely damaged and destroyed multiple Japanese enemy planes, surface combatants and merchant ships, and dispersed landing parties and enemy forces for over four months in the waters surrounding the Philippines. His team was also responsible for safely bringing General Douglas MacArthur and his family out of the island of Corregidor in the Philippines, sailing through heavily-patrolled enemy waters, allowing him to evade capture and lead the counteroffensive in the Pacific that ultimately changed the course of WWII.

    “That same courage and that same determination that Lt. Cmdr. Bulkeley showed in World War II, we still celebrate today,” said Holmes. “I take great pride in knowing that we are the same Navy today that we were 249 years ago – strong, capable, and ready. I am incredibly proud to be sailing in the same waters, with the crew of Boxer and the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, where Lieutenant Commander Bulkeley and those who have gone before us so bravely operated in defense of our nation’s security.”

    The United States Navy was born through the sacrifice and determination of the men and women who served a noble cause to defend the people of the United States of America, tracing its origins back to the American Revolution.

    “Soon after the War on Independence, the U.S. Constitution empowered the new Congress to provide and maintain the Navy,” said Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Corey Gadson during the ceremony. “Acting on this authority, Congress established the Department of the Navy on April 30, 1798, and in the years that followed, the first ships were constructed: the Constellation, Constitution, Congress, Chesapeake, United States and the President, known as the six frigates.”

    In the last 249 years, the Navy has since grown to become a symbol of freedom for both the American people and the world, protecting the air and seas, deterring aggression and operating alongside our Allies and Partners in support of shared interests of peace and stability.

    “Today, we have more than 280 ships – with 77 more under construction or on order – manned and backed by more than 300,000 Sailors,” said Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class Alana Reyes. “We are our nation’s vital maritime maneuver force – persistent, versatile, and capable of winning any fight and ready for the challenges of the future.”

    Boxer and embarked elements of the 15th MEU are conducting routine operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations. U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

    Boxer is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship homeported in San Diego. Commissioned February 11, 1995, Boxer is the sixth ship to bear the name. Boxer’s crew is made up of approximately 1,200 officers and enlisted personnel and can accommodate up to 1,800 Marines.

    For more information or imagery for USS Boxer visit: https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/LHD-4
    Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ussboxer/
    Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ussboxer/

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Update: State Highway 65, Maruia to Shenandoah, closed following truck crash

    Source: New Zealand Transport Agency

    Update 3:10 pm: State Highway 65 remains closed to traffic between Springs Junction and the Buller Gorge junction following a truck crash earlier today.

    Work to clear the crash site is continuing and the highway is expected to remain closed for some time.

    Drivers are asked to avoid the area and use the recommended detour.

    Updates on the highway’s status can be found on the NZTA/Waka Kotahi website:

    Highway conditions – West Coast(external link)

    12.45pm:

    Drivers are asked to avoid State Highway 65 between Springs Junction and the Buller Gorge junction following a truck crash.

    The incident, which was reported shortly before 11:30 this morning, occurred  near the intersection of State Highway 65 and Pea Soup Road. The truck’s trailer has overturned.

    State Highway 65 is closed between Springs Junction and the Buller Gorge. Drivers must avoid the area, delay their journey or use an alternative route.

    Northbound traffic can detour via State Highway 7 to Reefton, then use State Highway 69  to Inangahua, and then State Highway 6 and the Buller Gorge. The reverse applies for southbound traffic.

    Emergency services and contractors are attending the crash. Work is underway to reopen the road, but no timeframes for this are currently available.

    Further information on the highway’s status will be provided when available. Updates can be found on the NZTA/Waka Kotahi website:

    Highway conditions – West Coast(external link)

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Young musicians from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to showcase diverse artistic vitality of Greater Bay Area with fine music

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         The Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra (HKYSO) of the Music Office under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) and the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra (GSYO) will come together to present the talents of young musicians from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao at the “2024 GBA Youth Symphonic Spectacular” concert at the Auditorium of Sha Tin Town Hall at 7.30pm on November 16 (Saturday).

         A delightful concert programme will be presented to the audience by the three youth orchestras under the batons of the conductor of the HKYSO Lee Sing-wan, the conductor of the MYSO Stephen Lam, and the Music Director of the GSYO Jing Huan respectively.

         Highlights include “Namouna Suite d’orchestre No. 1” by the prominent French composer Lalo of the Romantic era; “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1” featuring composer Enescu’s unique interpretation of Romanian folk music; and “Harvest Song”, depicting the joy of a better life. At the finale of the concert, musicians from the three orchestras, under the baton of Jing, will perform Shi Wanchun’s “Festival Overture” and Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” as a joint orchestra, drawing the concert to a perfect conclusion.

         Tickets priced at $70, $90 and $115 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2796 7537 or 3842 7784 or visit http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/mo/activities/yme/2024gba.html.

         This concert is one of the programmes of the 4th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Culture and Arts Festival. Hong Kong is the host city of the Festival for the first time, organising and co-ordinating over 260 performances and exchange activities to be held in the “9+2” cities in the Greater Bay Area. The festival aims to showcase the vibrant and diverse cultural richness of the region and foster cultural exchange and co-operation among the cities. For more information, please visit http://www.gbacxlo.gov.hk.

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The government has a target for Indigenous digital inclusion. It’s got little hope of meeting it

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Critical Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie University

    Digital inclusion for Indigenous communities is important. It’s so important, in fact, that the government has made it one of the targets under the Closing The Gap plan. The goal is:

    by 2026, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal levels of digital inclusion.

    Digital exclusion is the continuing unequal access and capacity to use digital technology that is essential to participate fully in society.

    It severely stifles Indigenous creativity. It restricts access to essential tools, skills and platforms that are crucial for digital expression and innovation.

    For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, this exclusion leads to missed opportunities, particularly in areas linked to economic prosperity, such as employment and education. As the government’s policy focus is on economic empowerment, this is a major barrier.

    Measuring progress towards the 2026 deadline is challenging because there are simply no recent data.

    But given how big the gap was to start with, the lack of importance based on gathering relevant data and the insufficient government action since, we know the target is highly unlikely to be met.



    Read more:
    ‘Digital inclusion’ and closing the gap: how First Nations leadership is key to getting remote communities online

    What’s being done?

    To support the goal, the First Nations Digital Inclusion Plan offers a comprehensive strategy focused on three key pillars:

    • access (to telecommunication services, devices, and data)

    • affordability (the cost of services, devices, and data)

    • ability (skills, attitudes, and confidence with technology).

    Focused mostly on remote communities, initiatives such as the Australian Digital Inclusion Index highlight persistent challenges across all three areas.

    Although digital inclusion is an urgent issue in remote areas, research also shows Indigenous populations face widespread digital exclusion across the nation, regardless of remoteness.

    Some 84.6% (832,800) of Indigenous people live in non-remote areas. Many of these people are also excluded.

    Last year, the government established an advisory group to drive progress.

    It has developed a “road map”. This involves travelling to Indigenous communities across Australia to ensure their diverse needs, aspirations and environments are fully considered.

    Despite these ongoing government initiatives and policies, efforts to close the digital divide for Indigenous peoples remain insufficient. As technology continues to advance, Indigenous communities are left in an increasingly precarious situation.

    The rise of artificial intelligence

    The government’s current plans do not explicitly address the role of artificial intelligence (AI). This oversight is particularly concerning given the rapid advancement of AI technologies.

    A recent report on adult media literacy in Australia reveals 48% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants do not understand what AI is or the risks and opportunities it presents. This knowledge gap could further exacerbate the digital divide and deepen existing inequalities.

    AI presents both opportunities and challenges. When led by Indigenous people, it holds transformative potential across multiple sectors.

    It could enhance learning tailored to Indigenous knowledge systems, help in the revitalisation and preservation of languages, and improve healthcare delivery. It could also empower Indigenous businesses by optimising operations and market reach.



    Read more:
    AI affects everyone – including Indigenous people. It’s time we have a say in how it’s built

    Indigenous people are already collaborating on research that combines Indigenous knowledge with AI to support land-management practices.

    There are very few Indigenous-led AI projects underway nationally, but there’s great potential. With Indigenous people helping develop AI, these technologies could contribute to meaningful, self-determined growth across Indigenous communities.

    But only if we’re included.

    Avoiding exploitation

    Indigenous digital exclusion, especially in policy development and regulation, can result in AI being used by non-Indigenous people to tell our stories without our permission.

    They can profit from appropriation of our culture, including art and languages.

    The government needs to adopt a more comprehensive and forward-thinking approach. This should involve expanding the scope of digital inclusion initiatives beyond the current limited focus to encompass Indigenous communities across the entire country.

    The development of Indigenous-led digital literacy programs that respect learning styles and culture is also essential.

    The government should incorporate AI and other emerging technologies into planning to ensure Indigenous communities are not left behind.

    Establishing long-term partnerships with technology companies, educational institutions and Indigenous organisations to create sustainable digital inclusion programs is vital.

    The focus should be on creating Indigenous-led opportunities that leverage digital technologies for economic empowerment without exploiting or harming.

    Underrepresented in tech

    One barrier to this is there are very few Indigenous peoples involved in the tech industry, especially in decision-making roles and policy development.

    As of 2022, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people accounted for less than 1.4% of tech workers. There urgently needs to be more support to boost this figure.

    That’s because technology like AI presents potential careers for Indigenous people.

    Currently however, Indigenous peoples are not employed in the industries involved in AI. Of the global study of people working in this specific industry, Indigenous participation was not noted.

    The fact the government recognises digital inclusion as a national priority is a positive step. The current approach, however, is piecemeal and limited. We need a more holistic strategy.

    By developing more inclusive, technologically advanced policies led by Indigenous people, the government can ensure they are not left behind in the digital age. We need to be at the decision-making table.

    Closing the digital divide requires a multifaceted, long-term commitment from government. This means a national strategy recognising the diverse needs and aspirations of Indigenous communities across the country.

    By harnessing the full potential of digital technologies, including AI, and addressing the unique challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the government can create lasting positive change and truly empower Indigenous communities in the digital era.

    Bronwyn Carlson is a member of the First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Council.

    – ref. The government has a target for Indigenous digital inclusion. It’s got little hope of meeting it – https://theconversation.com/the-government-has-a-target-for-indigenous-digital-inclusion-its-got-little-hope-of-meeting-it-239733

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Interview with Paul Taylor, 3BA 102.3FM, Ballarat

    Source: Australian Treasurer

    PAUL TAYLOR:

    It’s nice to have in studio in person the federal Treasurer of Australia Jim Chalmers. Good morning to you, my friend.

    JIM CHALMERS:

    Good morning to you Paul, thanks for having me.

    TAYLOR:

    Well, we’ve only met once but I feel like I’m –

    CHALMERS:

    We’re old mates.

    TAYLOR:

    Well we have met, we’re old mates, aren’t we?

    CHALMERS:

    That’s how Australia works.

    TAYLOR:

    Once upon a time I got to speak to a Prime Minister, he of the budgie smuggler fame, and now I get to speak to the federal Treasurer. How are you?

    CHALMERS:

    There you go. I’m really good thanks, and I wanted to shout out from the outset the wonderful people at the George Hotel for one of the best coffees I have ever had. Thank you so much.

    TAYLOR:

    I’ll have to go and get one now, now you’ve put that in my head. We only have Nescafe downstairs. But see the thing is, Jim, it’s free and I’m a bit of a tight person.

    CHALMERS:

    Oh, right. Yeah, the moths fly out of your wallet when you open it kind of guy.

    TAYLOR:

    Yeah, they do. I’m rather rapt that you joined us here today because today’s is a special day and, Jim Chalmers, it’s World Banana Day. So I went to our local fruit and veg, Wilsons Fruit and Veggies just up the road in Mair Street and I got you a banana.

    CHALMERS:

    You got me a nana.

    TAYLOR:

    I got you a banana for World Banana Day. Can I just say I probably, if I were you, would start to eat that because to get through this interview you’re going to need all the energy you can muster.

    CHALMERS:

    Oh, I see. You’re buttering me up at the start with a nana.

    TAYLOR:

    I’m trying to.

    CHALMERS:

    You know I saw that banana in front of me and I thought, ‘I wonder if Paul’s going to tuck into that while we’re talking’.

    TAYLOR:

    I’ve got one for me, don’t worry. There we go, we’ve got one each.

    Where do we start? Well you and the Prime Minister, Mr Albo, must be, I don’t know, shaking in your boots at the moment. Coalition are ahead two‑party preferred basis, 2 points, 51 per cent. Behind in the primary vote as well, 38 to 31. It seems that Albo’s setting himself up for retirement, just bought himself a $4.3 million on the beach pad. What’s happening here, Jim?

    CHALMERS:

    Well I think when it comes to the opinion polls what I try and do, and I think what we try and do collectively, is we don’t get too carried away when they’re really good, we don’t get too carried away when they’re really tight. The truth is, when you’re in my line of work, you learn not to take anyone’s vote for granted, and particularly when people are doing it tough. There’s a lot going on around the world and around the country. we don’t take any outcome for granted. I think the polls are reflecting the fact that people are under pressure, and we understand that.

    When it comes to the other part of your question, I work as closely if not more closely than anyone with the PM, with Anthony, and I’ve seen for myself his total focus is on how we roll out this cost‑of‑living help, how do we build more houses for people to rent and buy, how do we take some of this pressure off people where we can? And I understand there’s interest in the place that he bought. I do understand that, and I think we all understand that when you’re in our line of work, people will have an interest in those sorts of private decisions that you take. In this case, he and Jodie wanted somewhere a bit closer to Jodie’s family in that beautiful part of Australia on the Central Coast. But I want to assure your listeners and anyone who checks out our interview, I see how focused he is on the cost of living, on housing for more Australians because those are the main issues that are putting pressure on people right now, and I think that’s reflected in our politics.

    TAYLOR:

    Would you agree it’s bad timing on the Prime Minister’s behalf?

    CHALMERS:

    I’m not going to give him free advice or kind of second‑guess –

    TAYLOR:

    You are a money man though. Surely you can give him free monetary advice?

    CHALMERS:

    I don’t give him free advice about these sorts of things. He’s very fortunate that he has Jodie and Jodie’s very fortunate that she has that loving family on the Central Coast and they want to be nearer to them. I’m not pretending that people don’t have a legitimate interest in the sorts of things that Prime Ministers do.

    TAYLOR:

    This is the talk of Australia at the moment.

    CHALMERS:

    I understand that. I think he understands that too. I spent yesterday with him in my own community just south of Brisbane around Logan City. He understands that too. But really the assurance that I can give your listeners and the country beyond is, he is extremely focused on all of the things that we’re doing to try and ease some of these cost‑of‑living pressures that people are confronting. That’s his focus.

    TAYLOR:

    There’s a couple of things out of that answer that you’ve given me. You’ve mentioned cost‑of‑living crisis, you’ve mentioned the housing crisis. Jim Chalmers, are we still the lucky country or are we not the lucky country any more?

    CHALMERS:

    Well I believe you make your own luck. I’m not the first one to say that but I really believe that this country has not just an amazing history, and being in Ballarat is really to be struck by the incredible history of our country, but our future is even brighter, and when Donald Horn wrote that book about Australia being a lucky country it was tongue‑in‑cheek. He was saying we were lucky despite the leadership that was being shown at the time. And so how I think about the future of this place is I think we’ve got enormous potential, we’ve got almost limitless opportunity. It matters how we share that opportunity. And the decisions we take now about the energy transformation and how we adapt and adopt technology and how we provide good services to people and how we make sure regions like this one are part of our story of economic success, these are the big challenges that we confront. We can be more than lucky. We can be successful not by accident but by design.

    TAYLOR:

    I’ve got some stats that I want to give to you and throw your way which make it extremely difficult to see the brighter light here in Australia that you speak of going forward. Eighty‑five per cent of Australians, 85 per cent, are now convinced, convinced, they’ll never be able to buy their own home except maybe through the bank of mum and dad. Eighty‑five per cent.

    CHALMERS:

    There’s a real intergenerational element to this. I’m off to Ballarat High shortly and I anticipate that one of the questions I’ll get will be about housing because there’s a real sense in Australia, and not an unwarranted one, that it’s harder to get a toe hold in the housing market and that’s why probably the biggest, if not the biggest, and certainly one of the biggest investments we’ve been making as a government is the $32 billion we found in 3 budgets to try and build more homes. Because the best thing we can do to make it easier for people to find somewhere to rent or somewhere to buy, somewhere to raise a family, is to build more homes. We don’t have enough homes in this country. We’re starting from a long way back. We’ve got a lot of investment flowing right now and that’s really important because we need to turn this ship around.

    TAYLOR:

    Housing Accord, 1.2 million homes by 2029. The HIA have come out today and said we need 22,000 carpenters, 17,000 sparkies, 1,200 plumbers. Now we’re going to import a heap of doctors into the country. Should we be doing the same with our plumbers and our carpenters and our sparkies? I don’t know. Is immigration the way to go? Because once they get here they’re not going to be living in swags, they need homes to live in, don’t they, Jim?

    CHALMERS:

    The first priority, the most important thing we can do is train more tradies. The housing pipeline is nowhere near what we want it to be. We agree with some of the analysis from the industry and from others that says we’re starting from a long way back but that doesn’t mean you kind of throw your hands in the air and say, it’s all too hard. We’re investing a bunch of money, but we do need the tradies. We need the carpenters and the plumbers and the sparkies to be able to build these homes. And so it’s not talking out of school to say that a big part of the conversations we’ve been having with the new Housing Minister, Clare O’Neil, a proud Victorian, is how we actually build the capacity to build all these homes and the most important part of that is skills. There will be a role for migration in that but the primary role is for TAFE and training, making sure that we can get the skills that we need to build the homes that we need.

    TAYLOR:

    Yeah, there’s a lot of work ahead for the Albanese government, the Prime Minister saying he wants to be there for a long time to come. Is that the charter of this government, to dig in, to show Australia that we can find the light at the end of the tunnel?

    CHALMERS:

    That’s our objective because we want to bed down the changes that we’re making. We want to build the homes, build the skills base, all of these important things that you’ve been asking me about this morning and that sometimes takes time, takes more than one term.

    If you think about the story of this government, we have done a lot, we’ve got a lot more to do, and the country has a lot to lose if we go back to the worst aspects of the government that preceded us.

    We don’t pretend that we have every issue fixed in this country, but if you think about – in my part of the shop – the progress that we’ve made together, and I don’t claim 100 per cent of the credit for this, this is to Australia’s credit – we’ve halved inflation, we’ve got real wages growing again, we’ve created a million jobs in a soft economy, we’ve got tax cuts flowing to everyone, and yet we’ve still delivered a couple of surpluses and we’ve avoided $150 billion in debt which means we pay less interest on it. So we’ve made a heap of progress as a country together, working together, but we know that there is more to do and that’s why we need another term to do it.

    TAYLOR:

    Just quickly, direct you to a feature in our local paper, the Ballarat Courier this morning, a story that says growing numbers of Ballarat families are facing ‘relentless poverty’, quote unquote, with parents being forced to choose between buying food and paying for other essentials, including medication, bills and school costs because times are tough out there and it’s not easy. Families are suffering. I see it first‑hand. I volunteer for an organisation called the Soup Bus and the Soup Bus goes out and helps the homeless, those in need, and now it’s families in crisis who are showing up. We’ve now got a community house that I do a lot for up in Wendouree West and we are seeing more and more families come in for a feed because they simply can’t afford to put food on the table.

    CHALMERS:

    Yes. I don’t disagree that there are a lot of people doing it really tough, and if you think about those 3 budgets that we’ve handed down, really the most important part of those budgets, really the government’s reason for being, is in the near‑term to try and take pressure off people and in the longer term to build more opportunities for people.

    If you think about the things that we’re doing which are motivated by what you’re raising with me, I don’t dispute what you’re raising with me, I see it in my own community and around Australia that people are doing it tough, so that’s why the tax cuts are so important, the energy bill relief for every household, cheaper medicines, rent assistance, cheaper early childhood education, fee‑free TAFE, getting wages moving again. All of those things are motivated by what we see with our own eyes around Australia, which is people doing it tougher than we would like them to do.

    We have to get on top of this inflation and cost‑of‑living challenge and we are. We’re rolling out a bunch of help in the most responsible way that we can, but we acknowledge that even with that help that we’re rolling out, billions of dollars of assistance for people who are doing it tough, we know that that the pressures are still there and as a Labor government, we take our responsibilities to the people that you’re referencing very seriously.

    TAYLOR:

    I know you can’t tell the RBA what to do but in your mind how soon before we see interest rates drop?

    CHALMERS:

    Well the first part of your question’s right. I try not to pre‑empt or predict or second‑guess the decisions that are taken rightly and independently by the Reserve Bank. They do their job, and I do mine. My job is to help them in the fight against inflation and we made a heap of progress as a country in the fight against inflation, and they’ll weigh that up. They’ve got a meeting in November, another one in December, and then not ‘til February. I know there’s a lot of interest in that and the decisions that they might take, but I try and mind my own business and focus on what I can control and leave them to do their job.

    TAYLOR:

    All right, great to see the government backing the ACCC where price gouging is concerned with the supermarkets, the big 2, Woolies and Coles. How much, is it talk, is it rhetoric, that the government are now going to take the big banks to task about fees where credit and debit cards are concerned? Is it really going to happen? Are we going to see the end of that gouging when it comes to the big banks?

    CHALMERS:

    We don’t want to see people charged these big fees just to use their own money, that’s why our primary focus is on debit cards. Debit cards are now actually most of the payment system. I think it’s just edged over 50 per cent of payments are from debit cards, so that’s people using their own money, and you shouldn’t get slugged just to use your own money, so we do want to crack down on that.

    We’ve got some work to do with the Reserve Bank and others to make sure that we do it the right way and one of the things we want to be really careful about there is the impact on small business and consumers. We want to make sure consumers and small businesses are beneficiaries of any change that we make but we are prepared to ban surcharges on debit cards subject to that work.

    TAYLOR:

    Jim Chalmers, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have you here in person. Great to see you getting out and about and into the regional areas given you’re the federal Treasurer. I want to thank you for your time, for your candid answers and enjoy your banana on World Banana Day.

    CHALMERS:

    Well thanks for having me on your show, Paul, and thanks for the nana as well. I’ll eat that shortly, it looks terrific.

    TAYLOR:

    Thank you very much. The federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Should King Charles apologise for the genocide of First Nations people when he visits Australia?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebe Taylor, Associate Professor of History, University of Tasmania

    King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Australia from Friday on a five-day tour of Canberra and Sydney.

    The king will be the second ruling British monarch to visit Australia, after Queen Elizabeth II’s 16 visits over 57 years.

    These visits showcase Australians’ evolving relationship with the monarchy and our colonial past.

    Changing attitudes

    An estimated 75% of Australians greeted Elizabeth on her first tour in 1954, at events that celebrated Australia’s growth as a prosperous nation.

    Historical milestones remained central to the queen’s subsequent visits.

    In 1970, she attended the re-enactment of Captain Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay. This included depictions of shooting at First Nations actors.

    The queen’s 1986 visit included signing the Australia Act that severed Britain’s formal powers over Australia.

    Her 1988 visit coincided with the Australian bicentenary of the arrival of the First Fleet carrying convicts and officials from Britain. But by this time, many Australians had lost their royal fervour.

    Her final tour, in 2011, came 12 years after Australia had attempted to become a republic by referendum.

    The queen’s death in 2022 not only reignited questions over the future of the monarchy in Australia, it instigated a public discussion over the monarchy’s role in imperial colonialism.

    Genocide in Australia?

    On the eve of Charles’ coronation in 2023, Indigenous leaders from 12 settler states including Australia and New Zealand cosigned a letter calling on the new monarch to apologise for the genocides that British colonisation brought to their territories.

    Australia was settled in the name of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Did that settlement result in genocide?

    Recent research led by Ben Kiernan for The Cambridge World History of Genocide has investigated this question using the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as a framework.

    The convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

    The term “genocide” itself is modern; coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1944. The colonisation of Tasmania by the British provided Lemkin with one of the clearest examples.

    The prosecution of crimes before 1951 is not permissible under the convention, which provides a definitional framework to evaluate past events as constituent acts of genocide.

    The Cambridge World History of Genocide Volume II and Volume III demonstrate how settlers and government agents committed acts of genocide against First Nations Australians from the beginning of settlement to the late 20th centuries.

    All parts of Australia are considered. Acts conforming to the convention’s clauses include killing, forcibly removing children and inflicting destructive conditions.

    Australian historian Lyndall Ryan’s chapter, Frontier Massacres in Australia, draws on her research for a Massacre Map showing how British troops and settlers committed more than 290 massacres across Australia between 1794 and 1928.

    These massacres killed more than 7,500 Aboriginal people.

    Ryan found the massacres were not sporadic and isolated – they were planned and sanctioned killings, integral to the aims of the Australian colonial project.

    Rebe Taylor’s chapter on genocide in Tasmania details a pattern of government-sanctioned mass killings in a colony where an estimated 6,000 Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) people were reduced to about 120 by 1835.

    Raymond Evans shows how as colonisation moved northward in Australia, massacres increased in size.

    Evans documents killings that persisted into the 1940s, postdating the 1928 Coniston massacre widely regarded as the last frontier slaughter.

    These findings are underscored by Tony Barta’s insight that colonists’ destructive actions constitute a record of genocidal intent “more powerful than any documented plot to destroy a people”.

    Research by Anna Haebich documents the taking of Indigenous children during the 19th century.

    Joanna Cruikshank and Crystal Mckinnon explain how these state-sanctioned removals in the 20th century were intended to eliminate First Nations people from Australia’s national life.

    The 1997 Bringing Them Home report, commissioned by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, concluded the “Australian practice of Indigenous child removal involved […] genocide as defined by international law”.

    A significant moment of resistance

    The colonial governor of Tasmania began to exile Palawa people from their land in 1829.

    More than 200 survivors of the “Black War” were removed to Flinders Island and subjected to life-threateningly harsh conditions. High death rates were caused by ill-treatment, disease and insufficient care.

    In 1846, the Palawa petitioned Queen Victoria to honour the agreement made when they were removed: that in exchange for temporarily leaving their country, they would regain their freedom.

    In this bold petition, Tasmanian Aboriginal people initiated a historic appeal to the British monarchy.

    Aware of Queen Victoria’s sovereign authority across the vast British Empire, this action marked a significant moment in their continued resistance to genocide.

    An acknowledgement of wrongs

    British sovereignty over Australia was imposed without the required consent of its First Nations. The result has been continued dispossession and suffering.

    Despite the Crown’s deferral of power to its parliament, the call for an apology from the king has immense symbolic importance.

    It is rooted in the desire for acknowledgement of wrongs. These include genocide and the continuing destructive effects of colonisation across Australia.

    Rebe Taylor receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Greg Lehman receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He is a member of the Board of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.

    – ref. Should King Charles apologise for the genocide of First Nations people when he visits Australia? – https://theconversation.com/should-king-charles-apologise-for-the-genocide-of-first-nations-people-when-he-visits-australia-239092

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Mounjaro is more effective for weight loss than Ozempic. So how does it work? And why does it cost so much?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Joyce, Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia

    Halfpoint/Shutterstock

    A weight-loss drug more effective than Ozempic and Wegovy has recently been approved in Australia.

    The drug, tirzepatide, is sold under the brand name Mounjaro and affects feelings of hunger and fullness, as well as changing how the body processess food. (In other countries, tirzepatide is also sound under the brand name Zepbound.)

    So how does tirzepatide work and differ from Ozempic? And with a price tage of $315–$645 per month for the starting dose, why is it so expensive?

    How does it work?

    Think of tirzepatide as a master key that unlocks two important doors in your body’s weight control system. It mimics two hormones: GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) and GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide).

    When you eat, your body naturally releases GIP and GLP-1 hormones. These hormones play crucial roles in regulating appetite, food intake and blood sugar levels. Tirzepatide mimics and amplifies the effects of these hormones.

    By mimicking the GLP-1 and GIP hormones, tirzepatide makes people feel fuller with smaller meals. This can reduce the overall food intake and lead to weight loss over time.

    It also helps your body process sugar more effectively and slows down how quickly food leaves your stomach. This results in eating less, feel satisfied for longer and having healthier blood sugar levels.

    How does it compare with Wegovy/Ozempic?

    Tirzepatide (Mounjaro) and semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) are similar in many ways. Both are injectable medications used for weight loss and work by mimicking hormones that regulate appetite and blood sugar.

    The key difference is that tirzepatide acts on two hormone receptors (GIP and GLP-1), while semaglutide only acts on one (GLP-1). This dual action is thought to be why tirzepatide shows slightly better results for weight loss in clinical trials.

    Clinical trials have shown participants lost an average of 25% of their body fat in the first year of treatment with tirzepatide. This is when combined with lifestyle counselling from a health-care professional who encouraged a healthy and reduced-calorie diet (500 calories less per day compared to patient’s diet at the beginning of the study) and at least 150 minutes of physical activity per day.

    This compares with an average of 15% weight loss in the first year for semaglutide, also alongside a reduced-calorie diet (a 500 calorie-deficit per day) and increased physical exercise (150 minutes per week).

    For a person weighing 120kg, this might mean the difference between losing 30kg with tirzepatide versus 18kg with semaglutide. But of course, with both drugs, some people will lose less weight than the average, some will lose more, and some may not respond to the drug at all.

    What are the side effects of tirzepatide?

    Like any medication, tirzepatide has side effects. The most common are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation. These could feel like a mild tummy bug and are similar to those seen with semaglutide.

    For most people, these side effects are manageable and often improve over time.

    There are also some rarer, more serious risks to consider. These include inflammation of the pancreas and gallbladder problems. There is also a potential increased risk for thyroid cancer, although this has only been seen in lab rats so far, not humans.

    As with Ozempic and Wegovy, when you stop taking tirzepatide, its effects stop. Most people regain some, if not all, of the weight they lost.

    People often regain some or all of the weight they lost after stopping the medication.
    /John Hanson PyeShutterstock

    Who can access tirzepatide?

    In Australia, tirzepatide is approved for use in adults with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, or a or BMI of 27 or above if you have a weight-related health condition such as diabetes. It can only be prescribed by a doctor, after you have tried other weight-loss methods.

    But it’s not suitable for everyone. It shouldn’t be used in pregnancy and may not be suitable for people with certain medical conditions and those with a history of eating disorders.

    If you’re considering tirzepatide, it’s important to discuss the benefits and risks for your personal health situation with your doctor.

    Why is it so expensive?

    Tirzepatide typically costs around A$345 per month for the starting dose. This can escalate to $645 per month for the ongoing “maintenance” dose if a higher dose is necessary for diabetes and/or weight management. This puts the drug out of reach for most people.

    Tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro in Australia, is only available on private prescription and is not subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This means you pay the full cost of the medication without any government support.

    However, the United Kingdom recently announced it would add tirzepatide to the National Health Service in a phased approach over the next three years, so it’s possible we might see it subsidised in Australia in the future.

    Developing new drugs is a costly business. Companies spend billions on research, clinical trials, and getting regulatory approvals. They then set high prices to recoup these costs and make a profit.

    The patent for tirzepatide lasts until 2036. So we won’t have any cheaper generic versions for more than a decade.

    Paul Joyce receives funding from The Hospital Research Foundation, Cancer Council SA, and the Australian Research Council. He is Director of the Australian Controlled Release Society.

    Srinivas Kamath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Mounjaro is more effective for weight loss than Ozempic. So how does it work? And why does it cost so much? – https://theconversation.com/mounjaro-is-more-effective-for-weight-loss-than-ozempic-so-how-does-it-work-and-why-does-it-cost-so-much-239185

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Overtly handmade and so very moving: Adam Elliot’s Memoir of A Snail is a stop motion triumph

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack McGrath, Lecturer in Animation at the University of Newcastle, University of Newcastle

    Many iconic Melbourne sights, including Luna Park, feature in Adam Elliot’s new film. Madmad Entertainment

    Stop motion films are by their nature a remarkable feat. When you know a movie has been carefully crafted, over several years and through thousands of photographs of handmade sets and characters, this alone makes it a delight to watch.

    But when the story is also deep, thought-provoking and at times laugh-out-loud funny, this takes the medium to a whole new level. Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail is such a film.

    Told through stop motion animation using clay (otherwise known as claymation), the film is a tactile experience in which everything you see has been made by human hands. This provides a warmth that is exacerbated by Elliot’s very human story of identity.

    The film explores how it can be difficult to find your way in life, particularly when you’re different – and that it is, in fact, OK to be different.

    Grace Pudel, the protagonist, is a snail enthusiast and we follow her as she navigates the many challenges that emerge in her life. Grace’s narration is raw and honest, and we can’t help but feel a deep connection with her.

    The story is so human and so very moving – and to be told through human-made characters perfectly rounds off the experience.

    Grace is a hoarder of ornamental snails, romance novels and guinea pigs.
    Madman Entertainment

    A win at Annecy

    In June, I was fortunate enough to help facilitate an animation study tour in France with students from the University of Newcastle. It was there we saw the world premiere of Memoir of a Snail at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the pre-eminent festival for animated film.

    The story clearly resonated with the audience, who sat captivated throughout its 90-minute runtime. They laughed and cried in unison as one engaged mass of humanity – culminating in a long and enthusiastic standing ovation.

    We were even lucky enough to bump into Elliot and his crew, and our students spoke with him about his journey in making Memoir of a Snail. The film went on to win the festival’s prestigious Cristal award for best feature.

    More than 7,000 individual items were handcrafted by various artisans, with most objects made from clay, wire, paper, paint and silicon.
    Madman Entertainment

    While claymation is generally viewed as a medium aimed at young audiences, Memoir of a Snail tells a wholly unique adult story.

    Much of its sophistication lies in its ability to effortlessly touch on many complex topics through a mixture of humour and emotion. Indeed, this approach to storytelling has become Elliot’s calling card.

    The film’s themes include identity, loneliness, alcoholism, cultism, hoarding, suicide, homosexuality, bullying, ageing, family, fat fetishism, grief and death. The story cleverly pulls you into deep thought, before surprising you with a hilarious gag.

    Grace (voiced by Sarah Snook) strikes up friendship with an eccentric elderly woman named Pinky (Jacki Weaver).
    Madman Entertainment

    Elliot’s dark and captivating aesthetic

    When introducing the film at Annecy, Elliot explained how his team’s limited budget led to a heavy reliance on narration, with limited walking and dialogue shots. Yet these constraints seemed to enhance the team’s creativity rather than stifle it.

    Elliot has a history of working around such limitations to bring his unique aesthetic to life. His first film Uncle (1996) was shot on 16mm black-and-white film, while his other short Cousin (1999) was shot on colour – but with a muted palette of grey tones.

    This palette has carried through Elliot’s work and is present in Memoir of a Snail. His version of the Australian landscape isn’t orange and sun-bleached. Rather, it is grey, overcast and drab – a dark world resembling the work of Eastern European animators such as Jan Švankmajer.

    Elliot’s other films include Brother (2000), the Oscar-winning short film Harvie Krumpet (2003) and his first feature film Mary and Max (2009).

    His works present tortured individuals – outsiders, misfits and oddballs – living in dark, suburban worlds. Behind the funny-looking faces and humorous vignettes lie deeper afflictions that become clear as the characters struggle through their lives.

    More than 1,000 plasticine mouths had to be made so the characters could talk.
    Madman Entertainment

    A gentle vulnerability shines through

    Elliot brings a naivety to the narration, where a simple statement of facts couches a deeper meaning. As the audience, we uncover mixed feelings of humour, dread and empathy for the tortured blobs of clay before us.

    The characters stand, blinking, looking back at us while the narrator describes their situation. They feel vulnerable, as though asking for our help as they stand silently, trapped in Elliot’s bleak world.

    Grace falls into dark spiral after she is seperated from her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) at a young age).
    Madman Entertainment

    Memoir of a Snail maintains a strong sense of materiality, as evidenced by fingerprints left on clay and brush strokes on painted backgrounds. Elliot’s self-described “chunky wonky” aesthetic abides by the rule that nothing in the world is straight.

    Almost everything in Elliot’s animated world is overtly handmade, presenting a kind of nostalgic and childlike innocence you’d expect from a school project. This helps add weight and authenticity to the film.

    The 3D work intersects with thoughtfully crafted 2D items such as handwritten title cards and signs.
    Madman Entertainment

    Elliot’s world is created “in-camera”, which means no digital effects were used. Water, for example, was created using cellophane, while droplets were painstakingly animated with blobs of glycerine, one frame at a time.

    Welcome relief in a hyper-digital world

    Lately, Australian animation has found an international audience and this has emboldened Australian animators to tell Australian stories. Bluey, for instance, has struck a chord with viewers globally because of – and not despite – its uniquely Australian voice.

    It took eight years to create Memoir of a Snail, which seems like a lifetime in today’s world. Witnessing such dedication may inspire audiences to think more deeply about animation as an art form and about film-making itself.

    Elliot’s handmade style is a nice counter to the digital and visual effects that seem ever-present in media today.
    Madman Entertainment

    Memoir of a Snail is a testament to stop motion’s power to move people. Elliot himself pointed out how stop motion seems to be experiencing a renaissance, with Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), Phil Tippett’s Mad God (2021), Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild (2022) and Chris Butler’s Missing Link (2019) all serving as recent examples of stop motion features.

    I hope Memoir of a Snail helps sustain this interest. In an age of automation and artificial intelligence, the film is a welcome return to the human experience. Thought-provoking, funny and wholly unique in its story and visual style, it’s well worth the watch.

    Other voice actors on the production include Eric Bana, Nick Cave and Tony Armstrong.
    Madman Entertainment

    The author would like to thank Daisy De Windt for her contributions to this article.

    Jack McGrath does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Overtly handmade and so very moving: Adam Elliot’s Memoir of A Snail is a stop motion triumph – https://theconversation.com/overtly-handmade-and-so-very-moving-adam-elliots-memoir-of-a-snail-is-a-stop-motion-triumph-233105

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Glucose monitors for diabetes have finally been funded – but a chronic workforce shortage will limit the benefits

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lynne Chepulis, Associate Professor, Health Sciences, University of Waikato

    Pharmac’s decision to fund continuous glucose monitors and automated insulin delivery systems for the approximately 18,000 people who currently live with type 1 diabetes in Aotearoa New Zealand is good news.

    The decision comes after years of advocacy from patient groups and clinicians.

    But there are problems within the broader system – particularly around workforce shortages – that mean full patient access to training on how to use the insulin pumps will likely take years.

    Failing to address these issues will also perpetuate health inequities for Māori and Pacific people, who are less likely to have used the monitor and pump in the past, and may have to wait longer for training. These delays could mute the positive effect of Pharmac’s funding decision.

    A complex balance

    Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that causes a person’s pancreas to stop producing insulin. This all-important hormone is needed to move glucose into every cell in the body.

    Without insulin, the cells (and the person) “starve”. While the current approach to the management of type 1 diabetes – finger pricking to test blood glucose levels and injecting insulin – works, it’s complex.

    Inject too much insulin and you’ll get low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia). This leaves a person with type 1 feeling shaky and weak, or possibly even in a coma. Don’t inject enough and you have ongoing high blood sugar (hyperglycaemia). This leads to long-term health complications.

    Figuring out the right amount of insulin is elusive. Needs constantly vary according to time of day, diet, exercise, illness, caffeine, alcohol, stress and other factors. This can take a toll psychologically and physiologically.

    Modern solutions

    Continuous monitors track blood glucose levels 24 hours a day through a sensor just under your skin, replacing finger-prick testing. They are widely funded and used overseas.

    The monitors alert users to low blood glucose and have significantly reduced hospitalisations for people with type 1 diabetes.

    Combining the monitors with a pump and appropriate algorithm automates the delivery of insulin when glucose levels rise higher than a patient’s target range – significantly reducing the day-to-day burden of treatment.

    But the continuous monitors and insulin pumps are expensive.

    Prior to Pharmac’s decision, the monitors were completely unfunded. Prices ranged between NZ$2,600 and $4,800 per year. Insulin pumps were funded, but only for a small group of people.

    This created an ever-widening equity gap. Māori and Pacific people with type 1 diabetes were less likely to access monitors and pumps. They were also more likely to have recurrent hospitalisations for diabetes-related events.

    A workforce shortage

    When compared with other countries, New Zealand has been slow to fund the monitors.

    Unfortunately, the diabetes workforce is also significantly understaffed when compared to international guidelines.

    There is a shortage of all qualified health care professionals for type 1 diabetes including endocrinologists, nurse practitioners, diabetes nurse specialists, dietitians, psychologists, social workers and podiatrists.

    To meet international recommendations, New Zealand would have to more than double the clinical workforce.

    Most people with type 1 diabetes will be able to rapidly access the monitors because these can be prescribed through GPs as well as by diabetes specialists. However, insulin pumps and automated insulin delivery will only be accessible through specialists.

    While insulin pumps offer advantages for managing glucose levels, learning to use the device takes time and requires support from clinicians. This will likely be a problem, particularly for those who already have challenges accessing healthcare services in this country.

    An equity issue

    Māori and Pacific people with type 1 diabetes are less likely to be current insulin pump users. This means there is a clear risk of workforce shortages causing those who would benefit most from automated insulin delivery to be among the last to have access.

    Increasingly, evidence on continuous glucose monitors and automated insulin delivery shows they improve managing type 1 diabetes for everyone.

    Monitor use has been shown to reduce the differences in the management of glucose levels between Māori and non-Māori children with type 1 diabetes.

    Automated insulin delivery can also be an effective tool for children and adolescents with very high-risk glucose levels.

    So, thank you Pharmac. Funded devices are a game changer. New Zealand has moved from an outdated, inequitable system of technology funding in type 1 diabetes to a progressive and fair system. But so much more needs to be done to support everyone with this disease.

    Lynne Chepulis receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. She is an executive member of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes.

    Hamish Crocket receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. He is an executive member of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes and is the chairperson of Nightscout New Zealand, a diabetes advocacy group. Hamish has been living with type one diabetes since 2013.

    Martin de Bock receives funding from Novo Nordisk, Medtronic, Ypsomed, Dexcom, and Insulet. Honoraria, travel expenses or speaking fees from Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Pfizer, Medtronic, Boerhinger Ingelheim, Ypsomed, Dexcom, and Insulet. Advisory Boards for Tandem and Dexcom, Tautoko Tech, Nascence biomedical.

    – ref. Glucose monitors for diabetes have finally been funded – but a chronic workforce shortage will limit the benefits – https://theconversation.com/glucose-monitors-for-diabetes-have-finally-been-funded-but-a-chronic-workforce-shortage-will-limit-the-benefits-241113

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Radio interview – ABC Tasmania, Mornings with Leon Compton

    Source: Australian Government – Minister of Foreign Affairs

    Leon Compton, host: Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Tasmania. At a speech last night, the Foreign Minister heckled by protestors angry at the Government’s non-sanctioning of Israel at a recent vote in the United Nations, and it’s an interesting look through your text questions this morning and how many of them are focused on that issue. We’ll get to them in a moment. If you’ve got a question, text me.

    I can also tell you the Foreign Minister is in the process of launching a new focus for humanitarian policy for Australia. Penny Wong, good morning to you.

    Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Good morning, Leon. Good to be with you.

    Compton: Your Government is launching a new humanitarian policy, Foreign Minister, that says it will aim to, ‘strengthen adherence to international humanitarian law.’ Can I ask you to describe Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law in Gaza and Lebanon, as Israel prosecutes the atrocities of October 7?

    Foreign Minister: Look, we have said from the start of this conflict that Israel was required to adhere to international law. And that includes the protection of civilians, the protection of aid workers. This is something we have said from day one, and you might recall that Mr Dutton has been very critical of me for saying so.

    I made the point at the United Nations in the National Statement there, that we have – there are rules of war and those rules apply even when confronting terrorists and even when acting in self-defence. So, we should continue to express our view that Israel is bound by international law, and work with others, as we have, to continue to press Israel on particular issues, and the most recent issue, obviously, is access of humanitarian aid into Gaza, where you’ve seen developments overnight.

    Compton: And we’ll get to those in just a moment. So, can you confirm you’re of a view that the Israeli Government under Benjamin Netanyahu have breached international humanitarian law in its conflict – in its conduct of this war?

    Foreign Minister: Well, Leon, ultimately those are decisions that international tribunals make. My job as the Foreign Minister for this country is not to sit as the international tribunal but to advocate for, and with others, advocate for, innocent civilians, and that’s what we’re doing.

    Compton: Can you understand the frustration that perhaps your language isn’t stronger on this, Penny Wong? I’ll read you a question that’s come in from one listener. It was the shortest of the questions we’ve received, many of them about exactly this. ‘Can you ask Penny Wong when she’s going to call for a ceasefire and stand up against the genocide?’

    Foreign Minister: I have called for a ceasefire. I did that months ago. And this is the problem with this debate, Leon – there’s a lot of disinformation that’s going around. You know, people – one person said yesterday, ‘When are you going to stop bombing Lebanon?’ I said, we’ve called for a ceasefire in Lebanon. We joined with the United States and all members of the G7 to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon over a week ago. In fact, that’s what Peter Dutton has been criticising the Government for. I called, the Prime Minister called, and we voted for a ceasefire months ago. We’ve said there should be a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Compton: The US, and you talked about, sort of the way things are turning overnight. Unless I’m wrong, are you referring to the fact that Israel have given – rather, the US have given Israel 30 days to improve humanitarian aid access to Gaza or else military support could be halted?

    Foreign Minister: Those and other actions by partners is what I was referring to. And I want to start by saying this: we can’t have Palestinian civilians continuing to pay the price for defeating Hamas. I’ve said that to Israel directly and personally, and I’ve said that publicly. I’ve said that, and I’ve been criticised for it by Mr Dutton. Part of what we agreed as an international community is you have to allow humanitarian aid in. When I went to Israel I put that directly to the President and to the Foreign Minister. We support the US and others who are putting pressure on Israel to allow more aid in.

    Compton: How do you explain the fact that Israel seems to just be able to feel it can – I mean, it has a right to do, you know, as it will, but it seems to have a right – see its role as thumbing its nose at its allies who are putting whatever level of pressure is being applied? It thumbs its nose to that pressure.

    Foreign Minister: Well, I’m not going to speak for Israel. I speak for Australia and the Australian Government, and our position from the start has been, you know, we, like all – I think all around the world looked at the atrocities of October 7, we recognise Israel’s right to respond to what was the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. We understand what that meant. We know hostages are still being held.

    We’ve also said how Israel responds matters. And that international law, which includes the protection of civilians must be observed. I pointed out that we have seen over 11,000 children killed in Israel’s response since this conflict began. And that – we are deeply concerned about the loss of civilian life and that Palestinian civilians can’t continue to pay the price of defeating Hamas. I’ve said all of these things.

    I appreciate that some people would like us to end the war. That is not within our power. I also appreciate that there are some people who don’t like the fact that I talk about international law. You’ve seen a lot of criticism from Mr Dutton of me and the Prime Minister for talking about that. But I’ll continue to argue that, because that is in Australia’s interests.

    Compton: Penny Wong is our guest this morning, Australia’s Foreign Minister. You were speaking in Hobart last night, protestors interrupted your speech, heckled you repeatedly. Can I ask what you felt at that moment? Those that were there suggested that you seemed to be experiencing frustration. Can I ask what you felt during that interruption?

    Foreign Minister: I think it was probably the 10th interruption, I was a bit frustrated I couldn’t finish a sentence. Look, I understand the depth of feeling this issue generates. I understand people are upset, horrified, distressed by what they are seeing. What I’d say is what I said there – I don’t think we gain anything by shouting each other down. And I don’t think we gain anything by being disrespectful to one another. And some of the things that were being said and shouted were not true. As I said, the example – one example is being told to stop bombing Lebanon. We are calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon. So, these are, you know, untruths which are told as part of people’s response. This is a hard issue for Australians, and what I’d say is, we should try and deal with it respectfully. And I don’t think you ever gain by shouting another person down.

    Compton: On Mornings around Tasmania a couple of other policy issues: you’re releasing a new humanitarian policy focus document for Australia. It’s obviously complex. So, in a simple way of addressing this for our listener, might be asking this question: Penny Wong, how is it different from the policy that it replaces?

    Foreign Minister: Well, it’s responding to the world as it is. I mean, we’ve got more people displaced in the world. We have 117 million people around the world displaced. We’ve got more people who need humanitarian assistance. We’ve got 300-plus million people who need humanitarian assistance this year. So, we have to recast our policy to prioritise. And the three priorities are we’re going to focus on – there are three Rs really. One is readiness, so we want to do more to make sure we are ready for and prepared with local communities and countries for disasters before they occur. Second, we’ve got to respond, so respond to crises and deliver more support, particularly with others. And the third is reinforce – reinforce the international humanitarian system to say, look, these rules that humanity came together and agreed after World War II, that we would protect civilians, that we would protect aid workers – and you might recall, we had an Australian killed by the Israeli Defence Force, and I’ve spoken a lot about that, in a strike – that we would work with others to try and reinforce the international humanitarian system. That is the system that enables both protection of people and also aid to get in. So they’re the three priorities.

    Compton: Can we move on to a different issue, which is allied in some way?

    Foreign Minister: Sure.

    Compton: It would be great for the competition and it would be great for Papua New Guinea if Papua New Guinea gets a rugby league team. How significant would the federal – is the fact that the Federal Government would contribute seeing it as a way of sort of boosting international relations in the near region? How significant is that proposal for relationships between Australia and PNG?

    Foreign Minister: I think it’s really significant, Leon. And what I would say is this: you know, if you look at how do we make ourselves more safe and secure in the world, part of what we do is we ensure we have deep, stable, strong relationships with our near neighbours, with our region. And to do that we have to make sure we look at what is it we bring to the relationship. Now, some of that is history, people to people, some of that is economic. But some of it also is, you know, culture. And that includes sport. It’s part of who we are. It’s who, you know, Papua New Guinea is. So, obviously, Prime Minister Marape of Papua New Guinea has been really clear that he wants Papua New Guinea to be in the NRL. We know how much – if you’ve been – I don’t know if you’ve been to PNG, Leon, but they’re pretty focused on sport, both men and women. And obviously there’s a women’s team as well. So, I hope that we can get this moving and make a good announcement in the near future.

    Compton: And how significant with would that be, Penny Wong, in helping combat the influence of China in Papua New Guinea and the wider region?

    Foreign Minister: Look, China’s doing what great powers do, and great powers try to lift their influence and expand their influence in the region that they wish. I’ve described what’s happening in the Pacific as a permanent contest. We’re not going back to where we were, you know, 10 or 20 years ago. I think the opportunity to be the only partner of choice in the Pacific was lost under Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton. And now what we have to do is make sure we are a partner of choice and that we do do all we can to make sure we contribute to a stable region, a peaceful region and a region where the interests of Australia and the Pacific island nations such as Papua New Guinea or Samoa or Fiji, all of our interests in peace are respected.

    Compton: Final question for you – we’ve got a minute left to news, appreciate you talking to us, Foreign Minister – are you still committed to the construction of nuclear submarines for Australia given the capability gap that we’ll have while that happens between the Collins class going out, the nuclear subs coming in? Andrew Wilkie is in The Mercury newspaper today saying that this is a mistake, that diesel subs would be better, faster, cheaper and allow us to maintain more military independence.

    Foreign Minister: Yeah, look, first, any submarines would be under Australian command. We’ve been very clear about that. The second point is obviously we would prefer not to be in this position, that we haven’t had, three different submarine plans that were junked over time. We have addressed the capability gap. We think submarines are important. Very happy to discuss why they’re important. It’s obviously about, you know, changing the strategic calculous of the region. But ultimately everything we do, whether it’s obtaining more deterrents or the work we do diplomatically, we’re all about trying to ensure peace and stability for Australia.

    Compton: Appreciate you talking with us this morning. Thank you.

    Foreign Minister: Good to speak with you, Leon. Thanks for having me.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: CPI figures show rents continuing to soar

    Source: Green Party

    Stats NZ has confirmed that higher rent prices were the biggest contributor to the annual inflation rate. Almost a fifth of the 2.2 per cent annual increase in the CPI was due to rent prices. 

    “Housing is a human right, but this Government is treating it like a game of Monopoly,” says the Green Party’s Housing spokesperson, Tamatha Paul. 

    “Everyone deserves a warm and affordable place to call home. We have everything we need to make this happen. All we need to do is start treating housing as the public good it really is instead of exploiting it for profit. 

    “Successive governments have turned housing into a business venture, locking people out from having a home while a privileged few benefit at the expense of everybody else. 

    “The current landlord Government has only inflamed the situation by handing landlords $2.9 billion in tax cuts while punching down on renters with no cause evictions and allowing rents to spiral out of control.  

    “The current system is forcing people into making the impossible choice of either buying essentials like food or paying rent. 

    “The Government is entrenching the imbalance between tenant and landlord to the point where people are too afraid to ask for leaks to be fixed or smoke alarms to be replaced out of fear of being kicked out of their home. 

    “We deserve better than this. We need rent controls which will limit the amount that landlords can increase rent and how often they can do this. We also need a Rental Warrant of Fitness to ensure quality, and for the Government to commit to building more public housing to make sure that our most marginalised and vulnerable can also have affordable, secure homes.

    “Everyone deserves to live in a warm and healthy home,” says Tamatha Paul. 

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Council appoints Craig Pauling as Chair

    Source: Environment Canterbury Regional Council

    There were no other nominations for the role.

    Councillor Deon Swiggs has been appointed as Deputy Chair.

    Councillor Pauling, who represents the Christchurch West/Ōpuna constituency, said it will be an honour and a privilege to lead the Council.

    “We have an ambitious work programme for the next 10 years, and I am proud of that. Now we just need to get on with it.”

    Pauling was nominated by Ngāi Tahu Councillor Tutehounuku ‘Nuk’ Korako and this was seconded by Ngāi Tahu Councillor Iaean Cranwell.

    Deputy Chair Deon Swiggs (left) and Chair Craig Pauling

    “We are all on the same waka and we are paddling hard for our communities, most importantly for the precious place we call home, for our water and our land and our air and sea,” Pauling said shortly after his appointment.

    “A lot of our work goes unnoticed but it is happening – from the thousands of bus trips taken on our public transport each month to the 26,000 consents we manage. We have been a leader in setting rules for land use and farming consents.

    “We protect homes, farms and businesses through our river flood protection systems. We protect towns across Canterbury. Our regional parks provide multiple benefits, including sediment control, flood protection, biodiversity as well as being used for recreation. We clean up wrecked vessels and ensure safe use of our harbours and waterways.

    “We don’t always get it right, but at the end of the day, we’re doing a lot of good work for a lot of people,” Pauling said.

    Deputy Chair Swiggs, who represents Christchurch West/Ōpuna, said he’s looking forward to working alongside Chair Pauling.

    “I’m humbled to be appointed to this role of Deputy. For me, the priority will be ensuring we focus on our core services, and do it well.”

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Parliament Hansard Report – Wednesday, 16 October 2024 – Volume 779 – 001421

    Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard

    Question No. 2—Prime Minister

    2. Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government’s statements and actions?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes, and especially our actions to get on top of inflation. This morning Stats New Zealand confirmed that inflation fell to 2.2 percent in the September quarter, the lowest rate in more than 3½ years, and it is clear that our plan, our economic plan, is working, which is why under our Government we’re getting on top of inflation fast. Just before the election last year, Treasury picked that inflation would have only fallen to 3.1 percent by this time and wouldn’t have reached 2.2 percent until the end of next year. And that’s despite all the scaremongering from the Opposition that fully funded tax relief, which Labour didn’t support, for supporting working families with the cost of living would actually push inflation higher. It didn’t do that. But, instead, our economic plan is delivering lower inflation, lower interest rates, two interest rate cuts in 10 months versus, I think, six or seven increases over the last six years. Importantly, what we’re seeing is that the foundations for economic growth to get New Zealand back on track are in place.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why did his Government cut funding for apprenticeships in critical infrastructure sectors when apprentice numbers are already in decline, compounding the skills shortages in the trades sector?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, what I’d say to the member is the Apprenticeship Boost was actually another case of Labour leaving behind another fiscal cliff. We’ve made funding for Apprenticeship Boost permanent so the programme wouldn’t expire like it would under Labour and, at the same time, we’re targeting it at the skills that we need.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why has he and his Government cut funding for apprenticeships in areas such as pipeline construction, bitumen resurfacing, road construction and maintenance, and drinking and waste-water treatment when this country is facing major challenges in those areas and this will only exacerbate skill shortages?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, we have to make sure we are spending money carefully. That’s what we do on the side of the House; we don’t waste money. That’s only a very small proportion of those that are actually using Apprenticeship Boost, and what I’d say to you is that we are making sure that we’ve got support for the skills we need like building and agriculture and manufacturing, forestry, food, and hospitality.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why was providing over $200 million in tax breaks to the tobacco company Philip Morris more important to his Government than keeping people in apprenticeships?

    SPEAKER: Just a moment. I think there’s a word there that probably shouldn’t have been in it. Do you want to ask that question again.

    Hon Member: What’s that?

    SPEAKER: I think you referred to the entity belonging to someone, which it didn’t. So just ask the question again.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why was providing over $200 million in tax breaks to companies like Philip Morris, the country’s largest supplier of cigarettes, more important to his Government than keeping people in apprenticeships?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well, I reject the characterisation of that question. What I would say to that member is that on this side of the House we are very committed to lowering daily smoking rates. We are determined to deliver on Smokefree 2025 and we’re going to make alternatives available. Also what I’d say is, with respect to the so-called tax that he talks about, what we’ve done is make sure Treasury is conservatively estimating the loss of excise tax by any shift that happens to an alternative product other than cigarettes.

    Rt Hon Winston Peters: Prime Minister, how often have you met someone whose logic is that when the tax on cigarettes go up, as it did December last year, it somehow is a concession to some business?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: It’s just prudent to actually set money aside. And for the most extreme scenario, if we get a shift from cigarettes to alternative products—that’s what we’re accounting for.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why should the construction sector have trust in his Government when they are cutting apprenticeships and, in their first 10 months in power, they have spent their time gutting school building programmes, shelving State housing projects, cancelling major infrastructure projects, and leaving the industry staring down a pipeline that’s looking more like an empty barrel?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Again, what you see is you see a business confidence at a 10-year high. Why is that? Because they know this is a Government dealing with and improving the economic fundamentals. We are making sure there is financial discipline and no wasteful spending. We’re making sure that inflation now, for the first time in 3½ years, is within the band. Interest rates cuts are coming down; confidence is up. That leads to economic growth and people in work.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: If things are so good for the building and construction sector, why are there 10,000 fewer people employed in the building and construction sector now than there were the day he became Prime Minister?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Because this economy is dealing with the lag effects of woeful economic mismanagement by that member and his former Government. What is good news is that consents are up 2 percent; the Infrastructure Commission’s latest pipeline estimates a total of over 6,000 projects—$147 billion worth; and the Transport Government policy statement put in $33 billion for the next three years. If the member cares a lot about it, I look forward to his support of our fast-track legislation, because that was a great idea from David Parker. We’ve built on it; there’s 149 fantastic projects: 55,000 potential new homes, 30 percent increase in electricity generation, and 180 kilometres of new roads, rail, and public transport.

    Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why won’t he admit that his Government doesn’t care about the damage it causes to New Zealand’s infrastructure, workforce, and economy, as long as his favourite pet projects like tax breaks for landlords and tobacco companies get billions of dollars that could so desperately be spent elsewhere?

    Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Aww, it’s a terribly sad day for the Leader of the Opposition. We have good news, which is we have inflation in the bands, we’ve delivered income tax relief for low and middle income working New Zealanders—people the Labour Party used to care about but don’t any more—we’ve got fast-track legislation sitting there, and he refuses to support it. Come on board, do something positive.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Secretary-General of ASEAN delivers remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity in Singapore

    Source: ASEAN

    Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, today delivered remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity, in Singapore. The event marked a significant milestone with the official launch of the ASEAN Regional Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

    In his remarks, Dr. Kao underscored the importance of establishing robust regional mechanisms that shape unified policies across ASEAN, while working together with ASEAN strategic partners to build a secure and resilient digital ecosystem.

    Download the full remarks here.

    The post Secretary-General of ASEAN delivers remarks at the Opening Ceremony of the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Cybersecurity in Singapore appeared first on ASEAN Main Portal.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Universities – Conference addresses the systemic causes of poverty – Vic

    Source: Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

    Media are invited to attend ‘Pakukore: Poverty, by Design—Addressing the systemic causes of poverty and options for change,’ an upcoming conference which will analyse the interconnected web of economic, governmental, legal, and institutional systems that have locked poverty in.

    Hosted by the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, the conference runs from 21‒23 November. It features speakers from research backgrounds and the front lines, who will provide evidence, present joined-up thinking, and examine where hope lies for eradicating poverty and assisting those who suffer its harms.

    “Should a developed nation continue to tolerate poverty and inequality? The conference invites speakers who work at the front lines in the fight against poverty to tell us of the lasting and severe harms it inflicts on people’s lives,” says Rebecca Macfie, JD Stout Research Fellow and co-organiser.  

    The programme will be ordered around the systems that have played, and continue to play, key roles in underpinning and maintaining the crisis of poverty: economic management, the housing, health, welfare, and education systems, the courts and corrections, and short-term political thinking.  

    The conference will also look at where hope lies, and how we can choose to redesign Aotearoa New Zealand to eradicate poverty and heal those who suffer its harms.

    Confirmed speakers include:

    Murray Edridge, Maria English, Philippa Howden-Chapman, Judge Ida Malosi, Professor Lisa Marriot, Max Rashbrooke, Professor Tracey McIntosh, Professor Māmari Stephens, Associate Professor Anna Matheson, Dr Jin Russell, Craig Renney, Jennie Smeaton, Pat Hanley, Brooke Pao Stanley, Agnes Magele, Rebecca Macfie, Dr Huhana Hickey, Sue Bradford, Bill Rosenberg, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, James Te Puni, Miriana Stephens, Professor Nikki Turner, Associate Professor Sarah-Jane Paine, Dr Avataeao Junior Ulu, Dr Hana O’Regan, Amanda Coulston, Jess Berentson-Shaw, MPs Carmel Sepuloni, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and Kassie Hartendorp. Journalist and commentator Bernard Hickey will be the conference rapporteur.

    The conference opens on Thursday 21 November 2024 at 5 pm with the JD Stout Memorial Lecture from Rebecca Macfie, and then runs from 9 am to 5 pm on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November. A full programme can be viewed here.  https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/stout-centre/about/events/poverty-by-design-addressing-the-systemic-causes-of-poverty-and-options-for-change

    Venue:  
    Lecture Theatre 1
    Rutherford House
    Pipitea Campus
    Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: CE’s speech in delivering “The Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address” to LegCo (1)

    Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

         Following is the translation of the speech made by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, in delivering “The Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address” to the Legislative Council this morning (October 16):

    Mr President, Honourable Members and fellow citizens,

    I. Reform and Embrace Changes to Achieve Prosperity

    1. This is my third Policy Address.

    2. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC Central Committee) adopted the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization. The Resolution calls on Hong Kong to fully harness the institutional strengths of “One Country, Two Systems” while consolidating and enhancing its status as an international financial, shipping and trade centre. It also supports Hong Kong’s position to become an international hub for high-calibre talents, to exert a greater role in our country’s opening up to the world, and to deepen collaboration within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) through better harmonisation of rules and mechanisms.

    3. In running for office, more than two years ago, I stated that “we must embrace a reform mind-set” and we “need further revamping”. I proposed to build a “result-oriented” government, setting key performance indicators (KPIs) to create a new government culture. I put forward a series of reform measures, including the establishment of Care Teams to enhance district services, introduction of the Advance Allocation Scheme to shorten the waiting time for public housing, and assistance to junior secondary students living in subdivided units (SDUs) for tackling intergenerational poverty. I believe that we must maintain our development momentum and self-renewal, and that we must embrace changes while staying principled, innovative and flexible in meeting challenges and opportunities.

    4. Regarding system reforms, I work on the principle that anything essential but lacking in the system must be established; any serious shortcomings must be rectified; any bottlenecks, weaknesses or hurdles must be overcome; and any areas in need of consolidation must be reinforced and improved. In the reform process, we have to decide what should be built from scratch, what should be overhauled to set things right, and what should be consolidated and bolstered. In taking forward reforms, we must have a systemic mind-set and manage the relationships between overall and local interests, between the present and the future, between macro and micro concerns. While we may make reference to the successful experiences of other places, we cannot adopt them directly given the differences in the basis and structure of our systems. Our reform proposals must take heed of the prevailing circumstances and be tailored to local conditions.

    5. Since becoming Chief Executive, I have carried out reforms along the above principle.

    6. On implementation of “One Country, Two Systems”, we fulfilled the constitutional responsibility to enact local legislation for Article 23 of the Basic Law; we reformed the institutional set-up of the District Councils by implementing the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”; we enacted a new legislation to enable an essentially automatic extension of land leases in an orderly manner for a term of 50 years to beyond 2047, manifesting the long-term adherence to “One Country, Two Systems”.

    7. On governance, we reformed the government structure and reshuffled the duties among policy bureaux, increasing their number from 13 to 15. We created three new Deputy Secretaries of Department to strengthen co-ordination of work across bureaux, setting up task forces led by the Deputy Secretaries to enhance implementation. We cultivated a government culture focusing on results. We also introduced a mechanism mobilising the Government at all levels to respond to major incidents.

    8. In economic development, we established the Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC) to optimise the use of government funds for the development of industries and our economy. We pressed ahead with the development of the “eight centres” and the Northern Metropolis, taking an industry-oriented approach. We set up the Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE) and the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) to strengthen our efforts in trawling for talents and enterprises. We also established Hong Kong as a regional hub for higher education.

    9. As for people’s livelihood, we implemented healthcare reform and took steps to build our primary review mechanism for drugs and medical devices. We set up a system for bringing in healthcare professionals to alleviate manpower shortage in the public healthcare system. We also launched Light Public Housing (LPH) to fill short-term gaps in the supply of public housing, and established the Task Force on Tackling the Issue of Subdivided Units. We pooled resources for targeted poverty alleviation. We established an annual review mechanism for minimum wage protection. We also rationalised traffic flow among the three road harbour crossings.

    10. Reform is a continuous process. Over the past two years, my team and I have focused on economic growth and on improving people’s livelihood through development, with the well-being of the people of Hong Kong close to our hearts. This Policy Address will deepen our reforms and explore new growth areas. Measures include building an international gold trading market, promoting high value-added maritime services, and building a commodity trading ecosystem and internationally-accredited metal warehouses. We will promulgate the Development Outline for the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park in the Loop, building a testing ground for policy and institutional innovation. We will also set up a working group on developing the low-altitude economy.

    11. In this Policy Address, I will continue to follow through the “four proposals” put forward by President Xi Jinping in his important speech delivered on 1 July 2022. I will also outline our vision and objectives for reforms and changes, as well as the related key measures and KPIs. A Supplement offering more details on the policy measures and related matters has also been compiled.

    (To be continued.)

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

  • MIL-OSI New Zealand: Health – Nursing students rally across the country

    Source: New Zealand Nurses Organisation

    On Saturday (19 October), New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) nursing students take their struggle to the streets calling on the Government to invest in their futures with paid training.
    Students need assistance while they study but are being ignored and exploited by those in charge, NZNO spokesperson and former National Student Unit co-chair Shannyn Bristowe says.
    They are given no additional financial help during clinical placements which sees them working full time without pay for up to 12 weeks – and often away from their hometown, she says.
    “Existing student allowances aren’t enough to cover even the most basic necessities.
    “Tauira (students) are stressed both financially and mentally. They are living in sheds, in cars, or in cramped, temporary spaces, just to get by. Some can’t afford to keep the lights on or put kai on the table for their whānau. The financial burden of studying weighs heavily on us all, forcing some of us to make impossible choices between paying bills, buying food, or continuing our education.
    “This burden is even heavier for Tauira Māori, as existing inequities create additional barriers, leading to the continued under-representation of Māori in the nursing workforce.
    “This is the reality we face every day. And we endure it because we want to serve, we want to help, we want to be the faces of care for our communities.”
    Ms Bristowe says with a high student drop-out rate of 33 percent, paid training is essential to keep students focused on studying and professional development instead of perpetually struggling.
    “Aotearoa cannot wait. Our people need nurses who are well-prepared, culturally safe, and emotionally resilient. Nurses who have not been broken by the journey to get there but have been supported along the way.
    “We ask the Government: Is this not a worthy investment? Because this isn’t just about us-it’s about the health and future of Aotearoa. We’ll be calling on the public to support us by signing our petition to the Government calling for paid training,” Ms Bristowe says.
    Rallies take place at nine centres across the country.

    MIL OSI New Zealand News –

  • MIL-OSI China: China eyes further fruitful partnership with Australia

    Source: China State Council Information Office 3

    Chinese Vice President Han Zheng meets with President of the Australian Senate Sue Lines in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 15, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

    Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with President of the Australian Senate Sue Lines in Beijing on Tuesday, noting that China is willing to work with Australia to build a more fruitful bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.

    Noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership, Han said consolidating and developing bilateral ties serves the common interests of the two countries and is conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity, as both China and Australia are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

    Han said China is ready to work with Australia to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of the two countries and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to build a more mature, stable and fruitful China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership and contribute to peace and development in the region and the world.

    Lines said she has felt the vitality and achievements of China’s development during this visit, adding that the close cooperation between Australia and China benefits the people.

    The Australian Senate is committed to promoting the sustained and steady development of Australia-China ties and the two countries being equal partners, Lines said.

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Social media footage reveals little-known ‘surfing’ whales in Australian waters

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanessa Pirotta, Postdoctoral Researcher and Wildlife Scientist, Macquarie University

    Sapphire Coastal Adventures

    As humpback and southern right whales return to Antarctica at the tail end of their annual migration, east coast whale watchers may think the show will soon be over. But some whale species are still here, possibly year-round. And we need to find out more about them.

    My team’s new research concerns one of these little-known species – the Bryde’s whale. You may have seen it feeding, breaching or surfing, without realising what it was.

    My colleagues and I wanted to learn more about where Bryde’s whales can be found in Australian waters. So we tapped into observations shared on social media, including drone footage and photographs from whale-watching tours. We also gathered observations from scientists.

    We discovered a wealth of information. It includes evidence of feeding and “surfing” behaviours possibly never documented before. Findings from this research will directly help inform conservation efforts to protect this species, which we still know so little about in Australian waters.

    A Bryde’s whale rides the surf after feeding in shallow waters.
    Taylor Arnell and Austin Ihle @takethemap

    Observing whales through citizen science

    Scientists can’t always be out in the field, or on the water. That’s why the data gathered by everyday people, known as “citizen scientists”, can be so useful. It captures valuable information about wildlife that can be used later by professional researchers.

    Citizen science projects involving marine life have grown over recent years. They include people documenting humpback whale recovery by counting northward migrating humpback whales off Sydney, and people watching sharks off Bondi Beach via the @DroneSharkApp.

    Hungry hungry whales

    Like humpback whales, these giants are “baleen” whales, meaning they are toothless. But Bryde’s whales have a much pointier mouth and lack that famous hump.

    A preference for warmer waters means Bryde’s whales are also known as tropical whales. They can be found in tropical or subtropical waters.

    Around the world, Bryde’s whales have demonstrated interesting feeding behaviours, from high-speed seafloor chases to “pirouette feeding”.

    Bryde’s whale in shallow waters near baitfish.
    Taylor Arnell and Austin Ihle @takethemap.

    Hanging out in shallow and deep waters

    Our study documented Bryde’s whales feeding in both deep and shallow waters off the east coast of Australia, alone or sometimes with other whales.

    We tapped into more than an hour of drone vision and more than 200 photos of Bryde’s whales shared by citizen scientists on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

    In offshore environments, Bryde’s whales were typically seen “side lunging” – where they propel themselves forward and turn onto their side then open their mouth to engulf their food. They also swam from below and scooped up their prey, much like humpback whales.

    Lunging Bryde’s whale feeding on small baitfish in New South Wales waters.
    Brett Dixon

    In shallow waters, Bryde’s whales were observed feeding directly within or behind the surf break.

    We believe this is a new feeding behaviour for this species. We call it “shallow water surf feeding”.

    Whales may be using the surf to assist with their feeding efforts, or, perhaps they are there because that’s where the bait fish are hanging out.

    Regardless, it’s impressive to see such a large whale in the surf and in shallow waters.

    Spotted: mums with their calves

    We also documented mothers with calves. This indicates some parts of the Australian east coast could possibly serve as an important area for nursing mothers with their young. They could also be using these waters for calving.

    We don’t yet fully understand the species’ movements around Australia, and whether they swim in New Zealand waters. For example, the world-famous white humpback whale Migaloo has been known to swim across the Tasman Sea.

    Bryde’s whale mother with calf in NSW waters escorted by dolphins.
    Brett Dixon

    Could these Bryde’s whales we see here in Australian waters be the same ones seen in New Zealand waters? Are they calving in New Zealand or Australia and moving between the two? If so, what does this mean for their protection?

    Whales don’t recognise international boundaries. They go where they want, when they want. This is why collaborative research like this is important for our growing knowledge of this species.

    The more we know, the better we can protect

    This is the first dedicated paper on both the occurrence and feeding behaviour of Bryde’s whale in Australian waters.

    As humans continue to expand our footprint in the ocean through activities such as offshore wind energy, shipping, fishing and tourism, knowledge of this species and others can help inform future decisions in our blue backyard.

    Findings of this study will directly contribute to Australia’s efforts to protect whales. One immediate action will be contributing information to the federal review of Biological Important Areas for protected marine species. The more we know, the better we can target conservation efforts to provide for a species we know relatively little about in Australian waters.

    And even though the humpbacks and southern rights are headed back south to Antarctica for the summer, it’s still worth keeping your eyes on the water. You might be the next person to spot a Bryde’s whale in Australian waters. Let us know if you do!

    An example of shallow water surf feeding by a Bryde’s whale.
    Taylor Arnell and Austin Ihle @takethemap

    Vanessa Pirotta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Social media footage reveals little-known ‘surfing’ whales in Australian waters – https://theconversation.com/social-media-footage-reveals-little-known-surfing-whales-in-australian-waters-241347

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Money Market Operations as on October 15, 2024

    Source: Reserve Bank of India
    (Amount in ₹ crore, Rate in Per cent)
      Volume
    (One Leg)    		 Weighted
    Average Rate    		 Range
    A. Overnight Segment (I+II+III+IV) 532,197.56 6.29 4.50-6.50
         I. Call Money 10,248.04 6.42 5.00-6.50
         II. Triparty Repo 369,769.45 6.27 6.20-6.37
         III. Market Repo 151,167.07 6.31 4.50-6.50
         IV. Repo in Corporate Bond 1,013.00 6.40 6.40-6.45
    B. Term Segment      
         I. Notice Money** 436.00 6.38 5.75-6.50
         II. Term Money@@ 255.50 – 6.55-6.90
         III. Triparty Repo 429.00 6.27 6.24-6.40
         IV. Market Repo 395.33 6.49 6.49-6.49
         V. Repo in Corporate Bond 0.00 – –
      Auction Date Tenor (Days) Maturity Date Amount Current Rate /
    Cut off Rate
    C. Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF), Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) & Standing Deposit Facility (SDF)
    I. Today’s Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo          
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo Tue, 15/10/2024 2 Thu, 17/10/2024 26,060.00 6.49
    3. MSF# Tue, 15/10/2024 1 Wed, 16/10/2024 1,528.00 6.75
    4. SDFΔ# Tue, 15/10/2024 1 Wed, 16/10/2024 76,656.00 6.25
    5. Net liquidity injected from today’s operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*       -101,188.00  
    II. Outstanding Operations
    1. Fixed Rate          
    2. Variable Rate&          
      (I) Main Operation          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo Fri, 04/10/2024 14 Fri, 18/10/2024 44,275.00 6.49
      (II) Fine Tuning Operations          
         (a) Repo          
         (b) Reverse Repo Mon, 14/10/2024 4 Fri, 18/10/2024 24,070.00 6.49
    3. MSF#          
    4. SDFΔ#          
    5. On Tap Targeted Long Term Repo Operations€ Mon, 15/11/2021 1095 Thu, 14/11/2024 250.00 4.00
    Mon, 27/12/2021 1095 Thu, 26/12/2024 2,275.00 4.00
    6. Special Long-Term Repo Operations (SLTRO) for Small Finance Banks (SFBs)£ Mon, 15/11/2021 1095 Thu, 14/11/2024 105.00 4.00
    Mon, 22/11/2021 1095 Thu, 21/11/2024 100.00 4.00
    Mon, 29/11/2021 1095 Thu, 28/11/2024 305.00 4.00
    Mon, 13/12/2021 1095 Thu, 12/12/2024 150.00 4.00
    Mon, 20/12/2021 1095 Thu, 19/12/2024 100.00 4.00
    Mon, 27/12/2021 1095 Thu, 26/12/2024 255.00 4.00
    D. Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF) Availed from RBI$       6,242.78  
    E. Net liquidity injected from outstanding operations [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     -58,562.22  
    F. Net liquidity injected (outstanding including today’s operations) [injection (+)/absorption (-)]*     -159,750.22  
    G. Cash Reserves Position of Scheduled Commercial Banks
         (i) Cash balances with RBI as on October 15, 2024 996,914.69  
         (ii) Average daily cash reserve requirement for the fortnight ending October 18, 2024 1,001,756.00  
    H. Government of India Surplus Cash Balance Reckoned for Auction as on¥ October 15, 2024 0.00  
    I. Net durable liquidity [surplus (+)/deficit (-)] as on September 20, 2024 418,318.00  
    @ Based on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) / Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL).
    – Not Applicable / No Transaction.
    ** Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 2 to 14 days tenor.
    @@ Relates to uncollateralized transactions of 15 days to one year tenor.
    $ Includes refinance facilities extended by RBI.
    & As per the Press Release No. 2019-2020/1900 dated February 06, 2020.
    Δ As per the Press Release No. 2022-2023/41 dated April 08, 2022.
    * Net liquidity is calculated as Repo+MSF+SLF-Reverse Repo-SDF.
    € As per the Press Release No. 2020-2021/520 dated October 21, 2020, Press Release No. 2020-2021/763 dated December 11, 2020, Press Release No. 2020-2021/1057 dated February 05, 2021 and Press Release No. 2021-2022/695 dated August 13, 2021.
    ¥ As per the Press Release No. 2014-2015/1971 dated March 19, 2015.
    £ As per the Press Release No. 2021-2022/181 dated May 07, 2021 and Press Release No. 2021-2022/1023 dated October 11, 2021.
    # As per the Press Release No. 2023-2024/1548 dated December 27, 2023.
    Ajit Prasad            
     Deputy General Manager
    (Communications)    
    Press Release: 2024-2025/1301

    MIL OSI Economics –